UC-NRLF 


B    M    1DM    Qfl3 


EOLLO  AT  PLAY; 

OR, 

SAFE  AMUSEMENTS. 


HE  WADED  INTO   THE    LITTLE   POND   AT   THE   GARDEN   GATE. 


ROLLO    AT   PLAY 


BY 

JACOB  ABBOTT 
u 


ILLUSTRATED  BY  CHARLES  CO  PEL  AND 


NEW   YORK 

THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL   &   CO. 
PUBLISHERS 


BYlPliM.LIPS« 


COPYRIGHT,  1897, 
BY  THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  COMPANY, 


95 


NOTICE  TO  PARENTS. 


ALTHOUGH  this  little  book,  and  its  fellow,  "  ROLLO 
AT  WORK,"  are  intended  principally  as  a  means  of 
entertainment  for  their  little  readers,  it  is  hoped  by 
the  writer  that  they  may  aid  in  accomplishing  some 
of  the  following  useful  purposes  :  — 

1.  In  cultivating  the  thinking  powers ;  as  frequent 
occasions  occur,  in  which  the  incidents  of  the  narra 
tive,  and  the  conversations   arising  from  them,  are 
intended  to  awaken  and  engage  the  reasoning  and 
reflective  faculties  of  the  little  readers. 

2.  In  promoting  the  progress  of  children  in  read 
ing  and  in  knowledge  of  language;  for  the  diction 
of  the  stories  is  intended  to  be  often  in  advance  of 
the  natural  language  of  the  reader,  and  yet  so  used 
as  to  be  explained  by  the  connection. 

3.  In  cultivating  the  amiable   and  gentle  qualities 
of  the  heart.     The  scenes  are  laid  in  quiet  and  vir- 
tuous  life,  and  the  character  and  conduct  describee! 
are  generally  —  with  the  exception  of  some  of  the 
ordinary  exhibitions  of    childish   folly  —  character 
and  conduct  to  be  imitated ;  for  it  is  generally  bet 
ter,  in  dealing  with  children,  to  allure  them  to  what 
is  right  by  agreeable  pictures  of  it,  than  to  attempt 
to  drive  them  to  it  by  repulsive  delineations  of  what 
is  wrong. 

M44188 


CONTENTS. 


HOLLO  AT  PLAY, 

STORY  1.  HOLLO  AT  PLAY  IN  THE  WOODS.  —  The  Set 
ting  out.  Bridge-Building.  A  Visitor.  Difficulty. 
Hearts  wrong.  Hearts  right  again. 

STORY  2.  THE  STEEPLE-TRAP.  —  The  way  to  catch  a 
Squirrel.  The  Way  to  lose  a  Squirrel.  How  to  keep 
a  Squirrel.  Fires  in  the  Woods. 

STORY  3.  THE  HALO  AROUND  THE  MOON;  OR,  LUCY'S 
VISIT.  —  A  Round  Rainbow.  Who  knows  best,  a  Lit 
tle  Boy  or  his  Father !  Repentance. 

STORY  4.  THE  FRESHET.  —  Maria  and  the  Caravan. 
Small  Craft.  The  Principles  of  Order.  Clearing  up. 

STORY  5.  BLUEBERRYING.  —  Old  Trumpeter.  Devia 
tion.  Little  Mosette.  Going  up.  The  Secret  out. 

STORY  6.  TROUBLE  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN.  —  Boasting. 
Getting  in  Trouble.  A  Test  of  Penitence. 


HOLLO   AT  PLAY. 


IN  THE   WOODS. 


THE  SETTING  OUT. 

ONE  pleasant  morning  in  the  autumn, 
when  Rollo  was  about  five  years  old,  he  was 
sitting  on  the  platform,  behind  his  father's 
house,  playing.  He  had  a  hammer  and 
nails,  and  some  small  pieces  of  board.  He 
was  trying  to  make  a  box.  He  hammered 
and  hammered,  and  presently  he  dropped 
his  work  down  and  said,  fretfully, 

44  O  dear  me  !  " 

"  What  is  the  matter,  Rollo  ?  "  said  Jonas, 
—  for  it  happened  that  Jonas  was  going  by 
just  then,  with  a  wheelbarrow. 

44  I  wish  these  little  boards  would  not 
split  so.  I  cannot  make  my  box." 


8  HOLLO   AT    PLAY. 

"  You  drive  the  nails  wrong ;  you  put  the 
wedge  sides  ivitJi  the  grain." 

"  The  wedge  sides  !  "  said  Hollo ;  "  what 
are  the  wedge  sides, — and  the  grain?  I  do 
not  know  what  you  mean." 

But  Jonas  went  on  trundling  his  wheel 
barrow  ;  though  he  looked  around  and  told 
Hollo  that  he  could  not  stop  to  explain  it  to 
him  then. 

Hollo  was  discouraged  about  his  box. 
He  thought  he  would  look  and  see  what 
Jonas  was  going  to  do.  Jonas  trundled  the 
wheelbarrow  along,  until  he  came  opposite 
the  barn-door,  and  there  he  put  it  down. 
He  went  into  the  barn,  and  presently  came 
out  with  an  axe.  Then  he  took  the  sides  of 
the  wheelbarrow  off,  and  placed  them  up 
against  the  barn.  Then  he  laid  the  axe 
down  across  the  wheelbarrow,  and  went 
into  the  barn  again.  Pretty  soon  he  brought 
out  an  iron  crowbar,  and  laid  that  down  also 
in  the  wheelbarrow,  with  the  axe. 

Then  Rollo  called  out, 

"  Jonas,  Jonas,  where  are  you  going  ?  " 

"  I  am  going  down  into  the  woods,  be 
yond  the  brook." 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  ?  " 


IN  THE    WOODS.  9 

"  I  am  going  to  clear  up  some  ground." 

"  May  I  go  with  you  ?  " 

"  I  should  like  it,  —  but  that  is  not  for  me 
to  say." 

Rollo  knew  by  this  that  he  must  ask  his 
mother.  He  went  in  and  asked  her,  and  she, 
in  return,  asked  him  if  he  had  read  Ids  les 
son  that  morning.  He  said  he  had  not ;  he 
had  forgotten  it. 

"Then,"  said  his  mother,  "you  must  first 
go  and  read  a  quarter  of  an  hour." 

Rollo  was  sadly  disappointed,  and  also  a 
little  displeased.  He  turned  away,  hung 
down  his  head,  and  began  to  cry.  It  is  not 
strange  that  he  was  disappointed,  but  it  was 
very  wrong  for  him  to  feel  displeased,  and 
begin  to  cry. 

"  Come  here,  my  son,"  said  his  mother. 

Rollo  came  to  his  mother,  and  she  said  to 
him  kindly, 

"You  have  done  wrong  now  twice  this 
morning;  you  have  neglected  your  duty  of 
reading,  and  now  you  are  out  of  humor  with 
me  because  I  require  you  to  attend  to  it. 
Now  it  is  my  duty  not  to  yield  to  such  feel 
ings  as  you  have  now,  but  to  punish  them. 
So  I  must  say  that,  instead  of  a  quarter  of 


10  HOLLO   AT   PLAY. 

an  hour,  you  must  wait  "half  an  hour,  before 
you  go  out  with  Jonas." 

Rollo  stood  silent  a  minute,  —  he  per 
ceived  that  he  had  done  wrong,  and  was 
sorry.  He  did  not  know  how  he  could  find 
Jonas  in  the  woods,  but  he  did  not  say 
any  thing  about  that  then.  He  only  asked 
his  mother  what  he  must  do  for  the  half 
hour.  She  said  he  must  read  a  quarter  of 
an  hour,  and  the  rest  of  the  time  he  might 
do  as  he  pleased. 

So  Rollo  took  his  book,  and  went  out  and 
sat  down  upon  the  platform,  and  he  began 
to  read  aloud.  When  he  had  finished  one 
page,  which  usually  took  a  quarter  of  an 
hour,  he  went  in  to  ask  his  mother  what  time 
it  was.  She  looked  at  the  clock,  and  told 
him  he  had  been  reading  seventeen  min 
utes. 

"  Is  seventeen  minutes  more  than  a  quar 
ter  of  an  hour,  or  not  so  much?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  It  is  more  ;  — fifteen  minutes  is  a  quarter 
of  an  hour.  Now  you  may  do  what  you 
please  till  the  other  quarter  has  elapsed." 

Rollo  thought  he  would  go  and  read  more. 
It  is  true  he  was  tired ;  but  he  was  sorry  he 
had  done  wrong,  and  he  thought  that  if  he 


IN   THE   WOODS.  11 

read  more  than  he  was  obliged  to,  his  moth 
er  would  see  that  he  was  penitent,  and  that 
he  acquiesced  in  his  punishment. 

So  he  went  on  reading,  and  the  rest  of  the 
half  hour  passed  away  very  quickly.  In 
fact,  his  mother  came  out  before  he  got  up 
from  his  reading,  to  tell  him  it  was  time  for 
him  to  go.  She  said  she  was  very  glad  he 
had  submitted  pleasantly  to  his  punishment, 
and  she  gave  him  something  wrapped  up  in 
a  paper. 

"  Keep  this  till  you  get  a  little  tired  of 
play,  down  there,  and  then  sit  down  on  a 
log  and  open  it." 

Rollo  wondered  what  it  was.  He  took  it 
gladly,  and  began  to  go.  But  in  a  minute 
he  turned  around  and  said, 

"  But  how  shall  I  find  Jonas?  " 

"  What  is  he  doing  ?  "  said  his  mother. 

"  He  said  he  was  going  to  clear  up  some 
land." 

"  Then  you  will  hear  his  axe.  Go  down 
to  the  edge  of  the  woods  and  listen,  and 
when  you  hear  him,  call  him.  But  you 
must  not  go  into  the  woods  unless  you  hear 
him." 


12  HOLLO   AT   PLAY. 


BEIDGE-BUILDING. 

Rollo  went  on,  down  the  green  lane,  till 
he  came  to  the  turn-stile,  and  then  went 
through  into  the  field.  He  then  followed  a 
winding  path  until  he  came  to  the  edge  of 
the  trees,  and  there  stopped  to  listen. 

He  heard  the  brook  gurgling  along  over 
the  stones,  and  that  was  all  at  first ;  but 
presently  he  began  to  hear  the  strokes  of 
an  axe.  He  called  out  as  loud  as  he  could, 

"  Jonas !  Jonas ! " 

But  Jonas  did  not  hear. 

Then  he  walked  along  the  edge  of  the 
woods  till  he  came  nearer  the  place  where 
he  heard  the  axe.  He  found  here  a  little 
opening  among  the  trees  and  bushes,  so  that 
he  could  look  in.  He  saw  the  brook,  and 
over  beyond  it,  on  the  opposite  bank,  was 
Jonas,  cutting  down  a  small  tree. 

So  Rollo  walked  on  until  he  came  to  the 
brook,  and  then  asked  Jonas  how  he  should 
get  over.  The  brook  was  pretty  wide  and 
deep. 

Jonas  said,  if  he  would  wait  a  few  min 
utes,  he  would  build  him  a  bridge. 


IN  THE  WOODS.  13 

"  You  cannot  build  a  bridge,"  said  Hollo. 

"Wait  a  little  and  see." 

So  Hollo  sat  down  011  a  mossy  bank,  and 
Jonas,  having  cut  down  the  small  tree,  be 
gan  to  work  on  a  larger  one  that  stood  near 
the  bank. 

After  he  had  cut  a  little  while,  Rollo  asked 
him  why  he  did  not  begin  the  bridge. 

"  I  am  beginning  it,"  said  he. 

Rollo  laughed  at  this,  but  in  a  minute  Jo 
nas  called  to  him  to  stand  back,  away  from 
the  bank;  and  then,  after  a  few  strokes  more, 
the  top  of  the  tree  began  to  bend  slowly  over, 
and  then  it  fell  faster  and  faster,  until  it 
came  down  with  a  great  crash,  directly  across 
the  brook. 

"  There  !  "  said  Jonas,  "  there  is  your 
bridge." 

Rollo  looked  at  it  with  astonishment  and 
pleasure. 

"  Now,"  said  Jonas,  "  I  will  come  and  help 
you  over." 

"  No,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  can  come  over  my 
self.  I  can  take  hold  of  the  branches  for  a 
railing." 

So  Rollo  began  to  climb  along  the  stem  of 
the  tree,  holding  on  carefully  by  the  branches, 


14  HOLLO   AT   PLAY. 

When  lie  reached  the  middle  of  the  stream, 
he  stopped  to  look  down  into  the  water. 

"  This  is  a  capital  bridge  of  yours,  Jonas," 
said  he.  "  How  beautiful  the  water  looks 
down  here !  O,  I  see  a  little  fish !  He  is 
swimming  along  by  a  great  rock.  Now  he 
is  standing  perfectly  still.  O,  Jonas,  come 
and  see  him." 

"  No,"  said  Jonas,  "  I  must  mind  my 
work." 

After  a  little  time,  Hollo  went  carefully 
on  over  the  bridge,  and  sat  down  on  the 
bank  of  the  brook.  But  he  did  not  have  with 
him  the  parcel  his  mother  gave  him.  He 
had  left  it  on  the  other  side. 

After  he  had  watched  the  fishes,  and 
thrown  pebble-stones  into  the  brook  some 
time,  he  began  to  be  tired,  and  he  asked  Jo 
nas  what  he  had  better  do. 

"  I  think  you  had  better  build  a  wigwam." 

"  A  wigwam  ?  What  is  a  wigwam  ?  "  said 
Rollo. 

"  It  is  a  little  house  made  of  bushes  such 
as  the  Indians  live  in." 

"  O,  I  could  not  make  a  house,"  said  Rollo. 

"  I  think  you  could  if  I  should  tell  you 
how,  and  help  you  a  little." 


IN   THE   WOODS.  15 

"  But  you  say  you  must  mind  your  -work.*1 

"  Yes,  —  I  can  mind  my  work  and  tell 
you  at  the  same  time." 
•  Rollo  thought  he  should  like  to  build  a 
wigwam  very  much.  Jonas  told  him  the 
first  thing  to  be  done  was  to  find  a  good 
place,  where  the  ground  was  level.  Rollo 
looked  at  a  good  many  places,  but  at  last 
chose  a  smooth  spot  under  a  great  oak  tree, 
which  Jonas  said  he  was  not  going  to  cut 
down.  It  was  near  a  beautiful  turn  in  the 
brook,  where  the  water  was  very  deep. 

Jonas  told  him  that  the  first  thing  was  to 
make  a  little  stake,  and  drive  it  down  in  the 
middle  of  his  wigwam-ground.  Then  Rollo 
recollected  that  he  had  left  his  hatchet  over 
on  the  other  side  of  the  brook,  together  with 
the  parcel  his  mother  gave  him ;  and  he  was 
going  over  to  get  them,  when  Jonas  told  him 
he  would  trim  up  the  bridge  a  little,  and 
then  he  could  go  over  more  easily. 

So  Jonas  went  upon  the  bridge,  and  began 
to  cut  away  the  branches  that  were  in  the 
way,  leaving  enough  on  each  side  to  take 
hold  of,  and  to  keep  Rollo  from  falling  in. 
Rollo  could  then  get  back  and  forth  easily. 


16  ROLLO   AT   PLAY. 

He  held  on  with  one  hand,  and  carried  his 
hatchet  in  the  other.  Then  he  went  over 
again,  and  brought  his  parcel,  and  laid  it 
down  near  the  great  oak  tree. 

Then  he  made  a  little  stake,  and  drove  it 
down  in  the  middle  of  the  wigwam-ground. 
Then  he  asked  Jonas  what  he  must  do  next. 

"  That  is  the  centre  of  your  wigwam ;  now 
you  must  strike  a  circle  around  it." 

"  What  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Don't  you  know  how  to  strike  a  circle  ?  " 
said  Jonas. 

Rollo  said  he  did  not,  and  then  Jonas  told 
him  to  do  exactly  as  he  should  say,  and  that 
would  show  him. 

"  First,"  said  Jonas,  "  have  you  got  a 
string  ?  " 

Rollo  felt  in  his  pockets  in  vain,  but  he 
recollected  his  little  parcel,  which  was  tied 
with  a  piece  of  twine,  and  held  it  up  to  ask 
Jonas  if  that  would  do.  Jonas  said  it  would, 
and  told  him  to  take  it  off  carefully,  and  tie 
one  end  of  it  to  his  centre  stake. 

And  Rollo  did  so. 

"  Now,"  said  Jonas,  "  make  another  little 
sharp  stake  for  the  marker,  and  tie  the  other 


IN   THE   WOODS.  17 

end  of  the  twine  to  that,  near  the  sharp 
end." 

Rollo  worked  busily  for  some  time,  and 
then  called  out, 

"Jonas,  it  is  done." 

All  this  time,  Jonas  was  at  work  in  the 
bushes,  at  a  little  distance.  He  now  came 
to  Rollo's  wigwam-ground,  and  took  hold  of 
the  marker,  and  held  it  off  as  far  from  the 
middle  stake  as  it  would  go,  and  then  began 
to  make  a  mark  on  the  ground  all  around 
the  middle  stake.  Now,  as  the  marker  was 
tied  to  the  middle  stake  by  the  string,  the 
mark  was  equally  distant  from  the  middle 
stake  in  every  part,  and  that  made  it  ex 
actly  round.  Then  Jonas  laid  down  the 
marker,  and  pulled  out  the  middle  stake ; 
and  they  looked  down  and  saw  that  there 
was  a  round  mark  on  the  ground,  about  as 
large  as  a  cart-wheel. 

Then  Jonas  took  the  crowbar,  and  made 
deep  holes  all  around,  in  this  circle,  so  far 
apart  that  Rollo  could  just  step  from  one  to 
the  other.  But  Rollo  could  not  understand 
how  he  could  make  a  house  so. 

44 1  will  tell  you,!'  said  Jonas.  "  You  must 
2 


18  HOLLO   AT  PLAY. 

now  go  and  get  some  large  branches  of  trees, 
and  trim  off  the  twigs  from  the  lower  end, 
and  stick  them  down  in  these  holes.  I  will 
show  you  how." 

So  Jonas  took  a  large  bough,  and  trimmed 
the  large  end,  and  sharpened  it  a  little,  and 
then  he  fixed  it  down  in  one  of  these  holes, 
in  such  a  manner  that  the  top  of  it  bent 
over  towards  the  middle  of  the  circle ;  then 
he  went  back  to  his  work,  leaving  Hollo  to 
go  011  with  the  wigwam. 


A  VISITOR. 

Rollo  put  down  two  or  three  branches 
very  well,  and  was  very  much  delighted  at 
seeing  it  gradually  begin  to  look  like  a 
house,  when  he  thought  he  heard  a  voice. 
He  listened  a  moment,  and  heard  some  one 
at  a  distance  calling,  "  Rol  —  lo !  Rol  —  lo  I " 
.  Rollo  dropped  his  hatchet,  and  looked  in 
the  direction  that  the  sound  came  from, 
and  called  out  as  loud  as  he  could,  "  What  1 " 


IN   THE    WOODS.  19 

"Where  —  are  —  you?  "  was  heard  in  re- 


Rollo  answered,  "Here"  and  then  im 
mediately  clambered  along  over  the  bridge, 
and  ran  through  the  woods  until  he  came 
out  into  the  open  field  ;  and  there  he  saw  a 
small  boy,  away  off  at  a  distance,  just  com 
ing  through  the  turn-stile. 

It  was  his  cousin  James.  It  seems  that 
James  had  come  to  play  with  him  that  day, 
and  Hollo's  mother  had  directed  him  down 
towards  the  woods. 

James  came  running  along  towards  Rollo, 
holding  up  something  round  and  bright,  in 
each  hand.  They  were  half  dollars. 

"  Where  did  you  get  them  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  One  is  for  you,  and  one  is  for  me,"  said 
James.  "  Uncle  George  sent  them  to  us." 

"  What  a  beautiful  little  eagle  !  "  said  Rol 
lo,  as  he  looked  at  one  side  of  his  half  dol 
lar  ;  "  I  wish  I  could  get  it  off  and  keep  it 
separate." 

"  O  no,"  said  James,  "  that  would  spoil 
your  half  dollar." 

"  Why,  they  would  know  it  was  a  half 
dollar  by  the  letters  and  the  head  on  the  other 


20  EOLLO    AT   PLAY. 

side.     What  a  pretty  tliin  eagle  !     How  do 
you  suppose  they  fasten  it  on  so  strong?  " 

James  said  he  thought  he  could  get  it  off ; 
so  they  went  and  sat  down  on  a  smooth  log, 
that  was  lying  on  the  ground,  and  laid  Rol- 
lo's  half  dollar  on  the  log.  Then  he  took  a 
pin,  and  tried  to  drive  the  point  of  it  under 
the  eagle's  head,  with  a  small  stone.  But 
the  eagle  would  not  move.  They  only  made 
some  little  marks  and  scratches  on  the  sil 
ver,  x-" 

"  Never  mind,"  said  Rollo  ;  "  I  will  keep 
it  as  it  is."  So  he  took  his  half  dollar,  and 
they  walked  along  towards  the  brook. 

They  showed  their  money  to  Jonas,  and 
told  him  that  they  had  tried  to  get  the  eagle 
off.  He  smiled  at  this.  The  boys  went 
back  soon  to  the  wigwam,  and  James  said  he 
would  help  Rollo  finish  it.  While  they 
were  at  work  they  put  their  money  on  a 
large  flat  stone,  on  the  bank  of  the  brook. 
They  fixed  a  great  many  boughs  into  their 
wigwam,  weaving  them  in  all  around,  and 
thus  made  a  very  pleasant  little  house,  leav 
ing  a  place  for  a  door  in  front.  When  they 
were  tired,  they  went  and  opened  Rollo's 


IN   THE    WOODS.  21 

little  package,  and  found  a  fine  luncheon  in 
it  of  bread  and  butter  and  pie  ;  which  they 
ate  very  happily  together,  sitting  on  little 
hemlock  branches  in  the  wigwam. 


DIFFICULTY. 

After  their  luncheon,  the  boys  began  to 
talk  about  the  best  place  for  a  window  for 
the  wigwam. 

"  I  think  we  will  have  it  this  side,  tow 
ards  the  brook,"  said  James,  "and  then  we 
can  look  out  to  the  water." 

"  No,"  said  Rollo,  "  it  will  be  better  to 
have  it  here,  towards  where  Jonas  is  work 
ing,  and  then  we  can  look  out  and  see  him." 

"  No,"  said  James,  "  that  is  not  a  good 
plan ;  I  do  not  want  to  see  Jonas." 

"  And  I  do  not  want  to  see  the  water," 
replied  Hollo.  "  It  is  my  wigwam,  and  I 
mean  to  have  the  window  here" 

So  saying,  he  went  to  the  side  towards 
Jonas,  and  began  to  take  away  a  bough, 
James  came  there  too,  and  said  angrily, 


22  ROLLO   AT   PLAY. 

"  The  wigwam  is  mine  as  much  as  it  is 
yours,  for  I  helped  make  it,  and  I  will  not 
have  a  window  here." 

So  he  took  hold  of  the  branch  that  Hollo 
had  hold  of.  They'both  felt  guilty  and  con 
demned,  but  their  angry  feelings  urged  them 
on,  and  they  looked  fiercely  at  each  other, 
and  pulled  upon  the  branch. 

"Rollo,"  said  James,  "let  go." 

"  James,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  tell  you,  let  my 
wigwam  alone." 

"  It  is  not  your  wigwam." 

"  I  tell  you  it  is." 

Just  then  they  heard  a  noise  in  the  bushes. 
They  looked  around,  and  saw  Jonas  coming 
towards  them.  They  felt  ashamed,  and  were 
silent,  though  each  kept  hold  of  the  branch. 

"  Now,  boys,"  said  Jonas,  "  you  have  got 
into  a  foolish  and  wicked  quarrel.  I  have 
heard  it  all.  Now  you  may  do  as  you  please 
• — you  may  let  me  settle  it,  or  I  will  lead 
you  home  to  your  mother,  and  tell  her  about 
it,  and  let  her  settle  it." 

The  boys  looked  ashamed,  but  said  noth 
ing. 

"  If  you  conclude  to  let  me  settle  it,  you 


IX   THE    WOODS.  23 

must  do  just  as  I  say.  But  I  do  not  pretend 
that  I  have  any  right  to  decide  such  a  case, 
unless  you  consent.  So  I  will  take  you 
home,  if  you  prefer." 

The  boys  both  preferred  that  he  should 
settle  it,  and  promised  to  do  as  he  should  say. 

"  Well,  then,"  said  he,  "  the  first  thing  is 
for  you,  Hollo,  to  go  over  the  other  side  of 
the  brook,  and  you,  James,  to  stay  here,  and 
both  to  sit  down  still,  until  you  have  had 
time  to  cool." 

The  boys  obeyed,  and  Jonas  went  back 
to  his  work. 

The  boys  sat  still,  feeling  guilty  and 
ashamed ;  but  they  were  not  penitent.  They 
ought  to  have  been  sorry  for  their  fault,  and 
become  good-natured  and  pleasant  again. 
But,  instead  of  that,  they  were  silent  and 
displeased,  eyeing  one  another  across  the 
brook.  Jonas  waited  some  time,  and  then 
came  and  called  them  both  to  him. 

"Now,"  says  James,  "1  will  tell  you  all 
about  it,  and  you  shall  decide  who  was  to 
blame." 

"  I  heard  it  all,  and  I  know  which  was  to 
blame ;  you,  James,  came  here  to  see  Hollo, 


24  -HOLLO    AT   PLAY. 

and  found  him  building  a  wigwam.  It  was 
his  wigwam,  not  yours.  He  began  it  with 
out  you,  and  was  going  on  without  you,  and 
when  you  came,  you  had  no  right  to  assume 
any  authority  about  it.  You  ought  to  have 
let  him  do  as  he  wished  witli  his  own  wig 
wam.  You  were  unjust" 

Here  Hollo  began  to  look  pleased  and 
triumphant,  that  Jonas  had  decided  in  his 
favor. 

"But,"  continued  Jonas,  "you,  Hollo, 
were  playing  here  alone.  Your  little  cousin 
came  to  see  you ;  and  you  were  very  glad 
to  have  him  come.  He  helped  you  build, 
and  when  he  wanted  to  have  the  window  in 
a  particular  way,  you  ought  to  have  let  him. 
To  quarrel  with  a  visitor  for  such  a  cause 
as  that,  was  very  ungentlemanly  and  unkind. 
So  you  see  ^ou  were  both  very  much  to 
blame." 

The  boys  looked  guilty  and  ashamed,  but 
they  did  not  feel  really  penitent.  They 
were  not  cordially  reconciled.  Neither  was 
willing  to  give  up. 

"But,"  said  Rollo,  "how  shall  we  make 
the  window  ?  " 


IN   THE   WOODS.  25 

"  I  think  you  ought  not  to  make  any  win 
dow,  as  you  cannot  agree  about  it." 

They  wanted  to  make  a  window  now  more 
than  ever,  for  each  wanted  to  have  his  own 
way  ;  but  Jonas  would  not  consent,  and,  as 
they  had  agreed  to  abide  by  his  decision, 
they  submitted.  Jonas  then  returned  to 
his  work,  and  the  boys  stood  by  the  side  of 
the  brook,  not  knowing  exactly  what  to  do. 
Jonas  told  them,  when  they  went  away,  that 
he  expected  that  they  would  have  another 
quarrel,  as  he  perceived  that  their  hearts 
were  still  in  a  bad  state. 


HEARTS   WROXG. 

The  boys  sat  down  on  the  bank  of  the 
brook,  and  began  to  pick  up  little  stones  and 
throw  them  into  the  water.  They  began 
soon  to  talk  of  the  window  again. 

Rollo  said,  "  Jonas  thought  you  were  most 
to  blame,  I  know." 

"  No,  he  did  not,"  replied  James.  "  He 
blamed  you  the  most ;  he  said  you  were  un 
just." 


26  ROLLO   AT   PLAY. 

"  I  don't  care,"  said  Rollo.  "  You  do  not 
know  how  to  build  a  wigwam.  You  cannot 
reach  high  enough  to  make  a  window." 

"  I  can  reach  high,"  said  James.  "  I  can 
reach  as  high  as  that,"  said  he,  stretching  up 
his  hand. 

" And  I  can  reach  as  high  as  that"  said 
Rollo,  stretching  up  his  hand  higher  than 
James  did,  for  he  was  a  little  taller. 

James  was  somewhat  vexed  to  find  that 
Rollo  could  reach  higher  than  he  could, 
though  it  was  very  foolish  to  allow  himself 
to  be  put  out  of  humor  by  such  a  thing. 
But  boys,  when  they  are  ill-humored,  and 
dispute,  are  always  unreasonable  and  foolish. 
James  determined  not  to  be  outdone,  so  he 
took  up  a  stick,  and  reached  it  up  in  the  air 
as  high  as  he  could,  and  said, 

" I  can  reach  up  as  high  as  that" 

Then  Rollo  took  up  a  stone,  and  tossed  it 
up  into  the  air,  saying, 

"  And  I  can  reach  as  high  as  that." 

Now,  when  boys  throw  stones  into  the  air, 
they  ought  to  consider  where  they  will  come 
down ;  -but,  unfortunately,  Rollo  did  not  in 
this  case,  and  the  stone  fell  directly  upon 
James's  head.  It  was,  however,  a  small  stone5 


IN  THE  WOODS.  27 

and  his  cap  prevented  it  from  hurting  him 
much ;  but  he  was  already  vexed  and  out  of 
humor,  and  so  he  began  to  cry  aloud. 

Rollo  was  frightened  a  little,  for  he  was 
afraid  he  had  hurt  his  cousin  a  good  deal, 
and  then  he  expected  too  that  Jonas  would 
come.  But  Jonas  took  no  notice  of  the  cry 
ing,  but  went  on  with  his  work.  Now,  Jo 
nas  was  very  kind  and  careful,  and  always 
came  quick  when  there  was  any  one  hurt. 
But  this  time,  he  knew  by  the  tone  of 
James's  crying,  that  it  was  vexation  rather 
than  pain  that  caused  it. 

James,  finding  that  his  crying  did  no  good, 
gradually  became  still;  and  in  a  few  minutes, 
as  he  happened  to  look  around,  his  eye  rested 
on  the  stone  where  they  had  put  their  half 
dollars,  and  he  saw  that  only  one  of  them 
was  there. 

"  0,  Rollo,"  said  he,  "  one  of  our  half  dol 
lars  is  gone." 

They  went  to  the  stone,  and,  true  enough, 
one  was  gone.  They  looked  around,  but  it 
was  nowhere  to  be  found.  Boys  that  are 
out  of  humor  with  one  another,  are  never  at 
a  loss  for  subjects  of  dispute  ;  and  Rollo  said 
he  believed  James  had  taken  it,  and  James 


28  HOLLO    AT   PLAY. 

charged  it  upon  Rollo.  Then  there  was  a 
dispute  who  should  have  the  one  that  was 
left.  James  knew  it  was  his ;  he  said  he  re 
membered  exactly  how  his  looked ;  and  Rollo 
knew  it  was  his,  for  the  head  and  the  stars 
were  very  bright  on  his,  and  they  were  very 
bright  on  this.  James,  however,  had  the 
half  dollar,  and  would  not  give  it  up  ;  and  so 
Rollo  went  to  Jonas,  and  told  him  that 
James  had  got  his  half  dollar. 

Jonas  came,  and  heard  the  whole  story 
trom  botli  of  the  boys.  James  said  he  knew  the 
one  that  was  left  was  his,  for  he  remembered 
exactly  how  it  looked,  and  he  also  remem 
bered  exactly  the  very  spot  on  the  stone 
where  he  put  it  down. 

James  did  not  mean  to  tell  a  lie,  but  he 
was  a  little  angry  and  excited;  and  when 
boys  are  in  that  state  of  mind,  they  are  very 
apt  to  say  they  know  not  what. 

Jonas  looked  at  both  sides  of  the  half  dol 
lar  very  attentively. 

"Which  half  dollar  was  it,"  said  he9 
6C  that  you  tried  to  get  the  eagle  off  of?  " 

"  Mine,"  said  Rollo ;  "  let  me  see." 

Jonas  held  down  the  half  dollar,  and 
showed  to  Rollo  and  James  the  marks  and 


IN   THE   WOODS.  29 

scratches  made  by  the  pin,  proving  that  this 
was  Hollo's  half  dollar.  James  looked 
ashamed  and  confounded  ;  Jonas  just  waited 
to  hear  what  he  would  say. 


HEARTS   EIGHT  AGAIN. 

James  stood  still  a  minute,  thinking ;  pres 
ently  he  said, 

ki  Well,  Rollo,  I  suppose  my  half  dollar  is 
lost,  but  I  am  glad  yours  is  safe,  at  any  rate." 

k*  I  am  sorry  yours  is  lust,"  said  Rollo, 
'•but  then  I  can  give  you  half  of  what  I  buy 
with  mine." 

"  Where  did  you  put  the  half  dollars  ?  " 
said  Jonas. 

"  On  that  rock,"  said  Rollo. 

They  walked  along  towards  the  rock.  It 
was  by  the  edge  of  the  water;  Jonas  thought 
that  as  they  had  been  dragging  boughs  of 
trees  along  near  the  rock,  some  little  branch 
might  have  reached  over  and  brushed  off 
one  of  the  pieces  of  money  into  the  water. 
So  he  walked  up  to  it  and  looked  over. 

In  a  minute  or  two,  he  pointed  down,  and 


80  ROLLO   AT    PLAY. 

the  boys  looked  and  saw  something  bright 
and  glittering  on  the  bottom. 

"Is  that  it?  "  said  James. 

"I  believe  it  is,"  said  Jonas. 

Jonas  then  took  off  his  jacket,  rolled  up 
his  shirt  sleeve,  lay  down  on  the  rock,  and 
reached  his  arm  down  into  the  water,  but  it 
was  a  little  too  deep.  He  could  not  reach  it. 

"  I  cannot  get  it  so,"  said  he. 

"  What  shall  we  do  ?  "  said  James.  "  How 
foolish  I  was  to  put  it  so  near  the  water  I  " 

"  I  think  we  shall  contrive  some  way  to 
get  it,"  said  Jonas. 

He  then  sat  down  on  the  rock  and  looked 
into  the  water.  "  We  can  go  home  and  get 
a  long  pair  of  tongs,  and  get  it  with  them,  at 
any  rate,"  said  he. 

"  O,  yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  will  go  and  get 
them  ;  "  and  he  ran  off  towards  the  bridge. 

"  No,"  said  Jonas,  "  stop ;  I  will  try  one 
plan  more." 

So  he  went  and  cut  a  long  straight  stem 
of  a  busn,  and  trimmed  it  up  smooth,  and 
cut  the  largest  end  off  exactly  square. 
Then  he  went  to  a  hemlock  tree  near,  and 
took  off  some  of  the  gum,  which  was  very 


IN   THE   WOODS. 


31 


"  sticky."  He  pressed  some  of  this  with  his 
knife  on  the  end  of  the  stick.  Then  he 
reached  it  very  carefully  down,  and  pressed 
it  hard  against  the  half  dollar ;  it  crowded 
the  half  dollar  down  into  the  sand,  out  of 
sight. 


"  There,  you  have  lost  it !  "  said  James. 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Jonas  ;  and  he  began 
slowly  and  carefully  to  draw  it  up. 

When  the  end  of  the  stick  came  up  out 
of  the  sand,  the  boys  saw,  to  their  great  de- 


light,  that  the  half  dollar  was  sticking  fast 
on.  They  clapped  their  hands,  and  capered 
about  on  the  stone,  while  Jonas  gently  drew 
up  the  half  dollar,  and  put  it,  all  wet  and 
dripping,  into  James's  hands. 

The  boys  thanked  Jonas  for  getting  up 
the  money,  and  then  they  asked  him  to  keep 
both  pieces  for  them  until  they  went  home. 
Then  they  began  to  think  of  the  wigwam 
again. 

"  We  will  make  the  window  as  you  want 
it,  James,"  said  Rollo  ;  "I  am  willing." 

"  No,"  said  James,  "  I  was  just  going  to 
say  we  would  make  it  your  way.  I  rather 
think  it  would  be  better  to  make  it  towards 
the  land." 

"  Why  can  you  not  have  two  windows  ?  " 
said  Jonas. 

"  So  we  can,"  said  both  of  the  boys ;  and 
they  immediately  went  to  work  collecting 
branches  and  weaving  them  in,  leaving  a 
space  for  a  window  both  sides.  Their  quar 
relsome  feelings  were  all  gone,  and  they 
talked  very  pleasantly  at  their  work  until 
it  was  time  for  them  to  go  home  to  dinner. 


THEY  WENT  TO  WORK  COLLECTING  BRANCHES  AND  WEAVING 

THEM    IN. 


EEE  STEEPLE  TRAP. 


THE  STEEPLE  TRAP. 


THE  WAY   TO   CATCH  A   SQUIRREL. 

THE  afternoon  of  the  day  when  Rollo  and 
his  cousin  James  made  their  wigwam  in  the 
woods  by  the  brook,  they  were  at  work 
there  again,  employed  very  harmoniously 
together,  in  finishing  their  edifice,  when 
suddenly  Jonas,  who  was  at  work  in  the 
woods  at  a  little  distance,  heard  them  both 
calling  to  him,  in  tones  of  surprise  and  pleas 
ure, — 

"O,  Jonas,  Jonas,  come  here  quick  — 
quick ! " 

Jonas  dropped  his  axe  and  ran. 

When  he  got  near  them,  they  pointed  to 
a  log. 

"  See  there ;  —  see  ;  — see  there  ! " 

"  What  is  it  ?  "  said  Jonas.  "  O,  I  see 
it,"  said  he. 

It  was  a  little  squirrel   clambering  up  a 


36  THE   STEEPLE   TRAP. 

raspberry-bush,  eating  the  raspberries  as  he 
went  along.  He  would  climb  up  by  the  lit 
tle  branches,  and  pull  in  the  raspberries  in 
succession,  until  he  got  to  the  topmost  one, 
when  the  bush  would  bend  over  with  his 
weight  until  it  almost  touched  the  log. 

"  Let  us  catch  him,"  said  Hollo,  very 
eagerly ;  "  do  let  us  catch  him ;  I  will  go 
and  get  our  steeple  trap." 

Jonas  did  not  seem  to  be  so  very  much 
delighted  as  the  boys  were.  He  said  ho 
was  certainly  a  cunning  little  fellow,  but 
"  what  should  we  do  with  him  if  we  should 
catch  him?" 

"  O,"  said  Rollo,  "  we  would  put  him  in  a 
little  cage.  It  would  be  so  complete  to 
have  him  in  a  cage  !  Do,  Jonas,  do." 

"  But  you  have  not  got  any  cage." 

"  We  can  get  one,"  said  James.  "  We  can 
buy  one  with  our  half  dollars." 

"Well,"  said  Jonas,  "it  will  do  no  good 
to  set  the  trap  now,  for  he  will  be  away  be 
fore  we  could  get  back.  But  I  will  come 
down  to-night,  and  set  the  trap,  and  perhaps 
we  shall  catch  him,  though  I  do  not  exactly 
like  to  do  it," 

"Why?"  said  the  boys. 


THE   STEEPLE  TEAP.  37 

"  O,"  replied  Jonas,  "  he  will  not  like  to 
be  shut  up  all  night,  in  a  dark  box,  and 
then  be  imprisoned  in  a  cage.  He  had  rather 
run  about  here,  and  gather  raspberries. 
Besides,  you  would  soon  get  tired  of  him  if 
you  had  him  in  a  cage." 

"  O  no,"  said  Hollo,  "  I  should  not  get 
tired  of  him." 

"  Did  you  ever  have  any  plaything  that 
you  were  not  tired  of  before  long  ?  " 

"Why,  — no,"  said  Rollo,  "but  then,  a 
real  live  squirrel  is  a  different  thing.  Be 
sides,  you  know,  if  I  get  tired  of  him,  I  need 
not  play  with  him  then." 

"  No,  but  a  real  live  thing  must  be  fed 
<svery  day,  and  that  you  would  find  a  great 
trouble.  And  then  you  would  sometimes 
jforget  it,  and  the  poor  fellow  would  be  half 
starved." 

"  O  no,"  said  Rollo  ;  "I  am  sure  I  should 
not  forget  it." 

•'  Did  you  remember  your  reading-lesson 
this  morning  ?  " 

"  Why, — no,"  said  Rollo,  looking  a  little 
confused.  "  But  I  am  sure  I  should  not  for 
get  to  feed  a  squirrel  if  I  had  one." 

"  You  don't  know  as  much  as  I  thought 
you  did,"  replied  Jonas. 


38  THE   STEEPLE   TRAP. 

"Why?" 

"  I  thought  you  knew  more  about  yourself 
than  to  suppose  you  could  be  trusted  to  do 
any  thing  regularly  every  day.  Why,  you 
would  not  remember  to  wash  your  own  face 
every  morning,  if  your  mother  did  not  re 
mind  you.  The  squirrel  is  almost  as  fit  to 
take  care  of  you  in  your  wigwam,  as  you  are 
to  take  care  of  him  in  a  cage." 

Rollo  felt  a  little  ashamed  of  his  boasting, 
for  he  knew  that  what  Jonas  said  was  true. 
Jonas  said  finally, 

"  However,  we  will  try  to  catch  him  ;  but 
I  cannot  promise  that  I  shall  let  you  keep 
him  in  a  cage.  It  will  be  bad  enough  for 
him  to  be  shut  up  all  night  in  the  box  trap, 
but  I  can  pay  him  for  that  the  next  day  in 
corn." 

So  Jonas  brought  down  the  box  trap  that 
night.  It  was  a  long  box,  about  as  big  as  a 
cricket,  with  a  tall,  pointed  back,  which 
looked  like  a  steeple  ;  so  Rollo  called  it  the 
steeple  trap.  It  was  so  made  that  if  the 
squirrel  should  go  in,  and  begin  to  nibble 
some  corn,  which  they  were  going  to  put  in 
there,  it  would  make  the  cover  come  down 
and  shut  him  iu.  They  fixed  the  trap  on  the 


THE   STEEPLE  TRAP.  39 

end  of  the  log,  and  Jonas  observed,  as  he  sat 
on  the  log,  that  he  could  see  the  barn 
chamber  window  through  a  little  opening 
among  the  trees.  Of  course  he  knew  that 
from  the  barn  chamber  window  he  could  see 
the  trap,  though  it  would  be  too  far  off  to  see 
it  plain. 


THE   WAY  TO   LOSE  A  SQUIRREL. 

Early  the  next  morning,  James  came  over 
to  learn  whether  they  had  caught  the 
squirrel ;  and  he  and  Rollo  wanted  Jonas  to 
go  down  with  them  and  see.  Jonas  said  he 
could  not  go  down  then  very  well,  but  if  he 
would  go  and  ask  his  father  to  lend  him  his 
spy-glass  he  could  tell  without  going  down. 

Now  Jonas  had  been  a  very  faithful  and 
obedient  boy,  ever  since  he  came  to  live  with 
Rollo's  father.  He  had  some  great  faults 
when  he  first  came,  but  he  had  cured  him 
self  of  them,  and  he  was  now  an  excellent 
and  trustworthy  boy.  It  was  a  part  of  his 
business  to  take  care  of  Rollo,  and  they 
always  let  him  have  what  he  asked  for  from 


40  THE    STEEPLE    TRAP. 

the  house,  as  they  knew  it  was  for  some 
good  purpose,  and  that  it  would  be  well 
taken  care  of.  So  when  Rollo  went  in  and 
asked  for  the  spy -glass,  and  said  that  Jonas 
wanted  it,  they  handed  it  down  to  him  at 
once. 

Jonas  took  the  glass,  and  they  all  three 
went  up  into  the  barn  chamber. 

Jonas  opened  the  glass,  and  held  it  up  to 
his  eye.  The  boys  stood  by,  looking  on 
silently.  At  length,  Jonas  said, 

"  No,  we  have  not  caught  him." 

"  How  do  you  know? "  said  the  boys. 

"  O,  I  can  see  the  trap,  and  it  is  not 
sprung." 

"Is  riot  sprung?"  said  James,  "what  do 
you  mean  by  sprung  ?  " 

"  Shut.  It  is  not  shut.  I  can  see  it  open, 
and  of  course  the  squirrel  is  not  there." 

"  O,  he  may  be  in,"  said  Rollo,  "  just  nib 
bling  the  corn.  Do  let  us  go  and  see." 

Jonas  smiled,  and  said  he  could  not  go 
then,  but  he  would  look  through  the  spy 
glass  again  towards  noon.  He  then  gave 
the  glass  to  Rollo,  and  it  was  carried  back 
safely  into  the  house. 


THE    STEEPLE   TKAP.  41 

"  James  soon  after  went  home,  and  Rollo 
sat  down  in  the  parlor  to  his  reading.  After 
wards  he  came  out,  and  went  to  building 
cities  in  a  sandy  corner  of  the  garden.  He 
was  making  Rome,  —  for  his  father  had  told 
him  that  Rome  was  built  on  seven  hills,  and 
he  liked  to  make  the  seven  hills  in  the  sand. 
He  made  a  long  channel  for  an  aqueduct, 
and  went  into  the  house  to  get  a  dipper  of 
water  to  fill  his  aqueduct,  when  he  met 
James  coming  again.  So  they  went  in,  and 
got  the  spy-glass,  and  asked  Jonas  to  go  up 
and  look  again. 

Jonas  adjusted  the  glass,  held  it  up  to  his 
eye,  and  looked  some  time  in  silence,  and 
then  said,  — 

"  Yes,  it  is  sprung,  I  believe.  Yes,  it  is 
certainly  sprung." 

"O,  then  we  have  caught  him,"  said  the 
boys,  capering  about.  "  Let  us  go  and  see." 

"  Perhaps  we  have  caught  him,"  said  Jo 
nas,  "  but  it  is  not  certain ;  sometimes  the 
trap  gets  sprung  accidentally.  However, 
you  may  go  and  ask  your  father  if  he  thinks 
it  worth  while  for  me  to  leave  my  work 
long  enough  to  go  down  and  see." 


42 


THE   STEEPLE   TRAP. 


Rollo  came  back  with  the  permission 
granted,  and  they  all  set  off;  Rollo  and 
James  running  on  eagerly  before. 

When  they  came  to  the  trap,  they  found 
it  shut.  Jonas  took  it  up,  and  tipped  it  one 
way  and  the  other,  and  listened.  He  heard 
something  moving  in  it,  but  did  not  know 
whether  it  was  any  thing  more  than  the  corn 
cob.  Then  he  said  he  would  open  the  trap 
a  very  little,  and  let  Rollo  peep  in. 


THE   STEEPLE   TRAP.  43 

He  did  so.  Rollo  said  it  looked  all  dark ; 
he  could  not  see  any  thing.  Then  Jonas 
opened  it  a  little  farther,  and  Rollo  saw  two 
little  shining  eyes,  and  presently  a  nose 
smelling  along  at  the  crack. 

"  Yes,  here  he  is,  here  he  is,"  said  Rollo ; 
"  look  at  him,  James,  look  at  him ;  —  see, 
see." 

They  all  peeped  at  him,  and  then  Jonas 
took  the  box  under  his  arm,  and  they  re 
turned  home. 

Jonas  told  the  boys  he  was  not  willing  to 
keep  the  squirrel  a  prisoner  very  long,  but 
he  would  try  to  contrive  some  way  by 
which  they  might  look  at  him.  Now,  there 
was  in  the  garret,  a  small  fire-fender,  which 
had  been  laid  aside  as  old  and  useless.  Jo 
nas  recollected  this,  and  thought  he  could 
fix  up  a  temporary  cage  with  it.  So  he  took 
a  small  box,  about  as  large  as  a  raisin-box, 
which  he  found  in  the  barn,  and  laid  it  down 
on  its  side,  so  as  to  turn^the  open  side  to 
wards  the  trap,  and  then  moved  the  trap 
close  up  to  it.  He  then  covered  up  all  the 
rest  of  the  open  part  of  the  box  with 
shingles,  and  asked  James  and  Rollo  to  hold 


44  THE   STEEPLE  TRAP. 

them  on.  Then  lie  carefully  lifted  up  the 
cover  of  the  trap,  and  made  a  rattling 
in  the  back  part  of  it  with  the  spindle. 
This  drove  the  squirrel  through  out  of  the 
trap  into  the  box. 

When  Jonas  was  sure  that  he  was  in,  he 
took  the  old  fender  and  slid  it  down  very 
cautiously  between  the  trap  and  the  box,  so 
as  to  cover  the  open  part  entirely,  and  make 
a  sort  of  grated  front,  like  a  cage.  Then  he 
took  the  trap  away,  and  there  the  little  nut 
cracker  was,  safely  imprisoned,  but  yet 
fairly  exposed  to  view. 

That  is,  they  thought  he  was  safely  im 
prisoned;  but  he,  little  rogue,  had  no  idea 
of  submitting  without  giving  his  bolts  and 
bars  a  try.  At  first,  he  crept  along,  with  his 
tail  curled  over  his  back,  in  a  corner,  and 
looked  at  the  strange  faces  which  sur 
rounded  him.  "Let  us  give  him  a  little 
corn,"  said  Kollo  ;  "perhaps  he  is  hungry;" 
and  he  was  just  slipping  some  kernels  in  be 
tween  the  wires  of -the  fender,  when  Bunny 
sprang  forward,  and,  with  a  jump  and  a 
squeeze,  forced  his  slender  body  between  two 
of  the  wires  that  were  bent  a  little  apart^ 


THE    STEEPLE   TRAP.  45 

leaped  down  upon  the  barn  floor,  ran  along 
to  the  corner,  np  the  post,  and  then  crept 
leisurely  along  on  a  beam.  Presently,  he 
stopped,  and  looked  down,  as  if  consider 
ing  what  to  do  next. 

The  moment  he  escaped,  the  boys  ex 
claimed,  "  O,  catch  him,  catch  him,"  and 
were  going  to  run  after  him  ;  but  Jonas  said 
that  it  would  do  no  good,  for  they  could  not 
catch  him  again  now,  and  had  better  stand 
still  and  see  what  he  would  do. 

He  soon  began  to  run  along  on  the  beam  ; 
thence  he  ascended  to  the  scaffold,  and  made 
his  way  towards  an  open  window.  He 
jumped  up  to  the  window  sill  and  then  dis 
appeared.  The  boys  all  ran  around,  outside, 
and  were  just  in  time  to  catch  a  glimpse  of 
him,  running  along  on  the  top  of  the  fence, 
down  towards  the  woods  again. 

"  Do  let  us  run  after  him  and  catch  him," 
said  Hollo. 

"  Catch  him  !  "  said  Jonas,  with  a  laugh, 
"you  might  as  well  catch  the  wind.  No, 
the  only  way  is  to  set  our  trap  for  him  again. 
I  meant  to  let  him  go,  myself,  but  he  is  not 
going  to  slip  through  our  fingers  in  that  way, 


46  THE   STEEPLE   TBAP. 

I  tell  him."    So  Jonas  went  down  that  night 
and  set  the  trap  again. 

For  several  days  after  this,  the  trap  re 
mained  unsprung,  and  the  boys  began  to 
think  that  they  should  never  see  him  again. 
At  last,  however,  one  day,  when  Rollo  was 
playing  in  the  yard,  he  saw  Jonas  coming  up 
out  of  the  woods  with  the  trap  under  his 
arm.  Rollo  ran  to  meet  him,  and  was  de 
lighted  to  find  that  the  squirrel  was  caught 
again. 


HOW   TO   KEEP   A    SQUIRREL. 

Jonas  contrived  to  tighten  the  wires  of 
the  fender,  by  weaving  in  other  wires  so  as 
to  secure  the  little  prisoner  this  time  ;  and 
when  he  was  fairly  in  his  temporary  cage, 
the  boys  were  so  pleased  with  his  graceful 
form  and  beautiful  colors,  especially  the 
elegant  stripes  on  his  back,  that  they  begged 
hard  to  keep  him,  and  they  made  many 
earnest  promises  never  to  forget  to  feed  him. 
Jonas  said,  at  last, 


THE   STEEPLE   TRAP.  47 

"On  the  whole,  I  believe  I  will  let  you 
keep  him,  but  you  must  do  it  in  my  way." 

"  What  is  your  way  ?  " 

"  Why,  after  a  day  or  two,  we  must  carry 
him  back  to  his  raspberry-bush,  and  let  him 
go.  But  you  may  give  him  a  name,  and  call 
him  yours,  and  you  can  carry  some  corn 
doAvri  there  now  and  then,  to  feed  him  with, 
—  and  then  you  will  see  him,  occasionally, 
playing  about  there." 

James  and  Rollo  did  not  exactly  like  this 
plan  at  first,  but  when  they  considered  how 
much  better  the  little  squirrel  himself  would 
like  it,  they  adopted  it,  and  Rollo  proposed 
that  they  should  tie  a  string  around  his  neck 
for  a  collar,  so  that  they  might  know  him 
again. 

"  I  can  get  mother  to  let  me  have  a  little 
pink  riband,"  said  he,  "  and  that  will  be 
beautiful." 

"It  would  be  a  good  plan,"  said  Jonas, 
"  to  mark  him  in  some  way,  but  he  might 
gnaw  off  the  riband." 

"  O  no,"  said  James,  "  he  could  not  gnaw 
any  thing  on  his  own  neck."  Rollo  thought 
so  too,  and  they  both  tried  to  bite  their  own 


48  THE   STEEPLE  TRAV. 

collar  ribands,  by  way  of  showing  Jonas  now 
impossible  it  was. 

"I  don't  know  exactly  what  the  limits 
are  of  a  squirrel's  gnawing,"  said  Jonas. 
"Perhaps  he  might  t3ar  it  off  with  his 
claws." 

"Or  he  might  get  another  squirrel  to 
gnaw  it  off  for  him,"  said  James. 

-'  ives,"  said  Jonas,  "  and  there  is  another 
difficulty.  He  might  be  jumping  from  one 
tree  to  another,  and  catch  his  collar  in  some 
little  branch,  and  so  get  hung,  without 
judge  or  jury." 

"  What  can  we  do,  then  ?  "  said  Hollo. 

"  I  think,"  said  Jonas,  "  that  the  best  plan 
would  be  to  dye  the  end  of  his  tail  black. 
That  would  not  hurt  him  any ;  and  yet,  as 
he  always  holds  his  tail  up,  wTe  should  see  it, 
and  know  him." 

The  boys  both  thought  this  would  be  ex 
cellent,  and  Jonas  said  he  had  some  black 
dye,  which  he  had  made  for  dyeing  some 
wood.  Jonas  was  a  very  ingenious  boy,  and 
used  to  make  little  boxes,  and  frames,  and 
windmills,  with  his  penknife,  in  the  long 
winter  evenings,  and  he  had  made  this  dye 
out  of  vinegar  and  old  nails,  to  dye  some  of 
his  wood  with. 


THE   STEEPLE   TRAP.  49 

"  I  am  not  certain,"  said  Jonas,  "  that  my 
dye  will  color  hair ;  I  never  tried  it  except 
on  wood.  Do  you  think  that  black  would 
be  a  pretty  color  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Rollo,  "  black  would  not  be  a 
very  pretty  color,  but  it  would  do.  Yellow, 
and  red,  and  green,  are  pretty  colors,  but 
black,  and  brown,  and  white,  are  not  pretty 
at  all." 

"  I  have  not  got  any  yellow,  or  red,  or 
green,"  said  Jonas.  "  I  don't  know  but  that 
I  have  got  a  little  blue." 

"  O,  blue  would  be  beautiful,"  said  James. 

Then  Jonas  walked  along  into  the  barn, 
and  Rollo  and  James  followed  him.  He 
went  up  stairs  and  walked  along  to  the  far- 
thest  corner,  and  there,  upon  a  beam,  were 
several  small  bottles  all  in  a  row.  Jonas  took 
down  one,  and  shook  it,  and  said  that  was 
the  blue. 

He  brought  it  down  to  the  cage ;  Rollo 
went  into  the  house,  and  brought  out  an  old 
bowl,  and  Jonas  prepared  to  pour  out  the 
dye  into  it.  They  then  concluded  that  they 
would  carry  the  whole  apparatus  down  into 
the  edge  of  the  woods,  and  perform  the  op 
eration  there ;  and  then  the  squirrel,  when 
5 


50  THE    STEEPLE   TRAP. 

he  was  liberated,  would  easily  find  his  way 
back  to  his  home.  Jonas  carried  down  a 
pair  of  thick,  old  gloves,  to  keep  the  squirrel 
from  biting  him. 

As  they  walked  along,  Rollo  proposed 
that  Jonas  should  dip  the  squirrel's  ears  in 
as  well  as  his  tail ;  "  because,"  said  he,  "  we 
may  sometimes  see  him  when  he  is  half  hid 
in  the  bushes,  so  that  only  his  head  is  in 
sight." 

"  Besides,"  said  James,  "  it  will  make  him 
look  more  beautiful  if  his  ears  and  tail  are 
both  blue." 

Jonas  did  not  object  to  this,  and  after  a 
short  time,  they  reached  the  edge  of  the 
woods.  They  found  a  little  opening,  where 
the  ground  was  smooth  and  the  grass  green, 
which  seemed  exactly  the  place  for  them. 
So  they  put  down  the  cage  and  the  bowl  of 
dye,  and  Jonas  began  to  put  on  his  glove. 

"Now,  boys,"  said  he,  "you  must  be  still 
as  moonlight  while  I  do  it.  If  you  speak  to 
me,  you  will  put  me  out ;  and  besides,  you 
will  frighten  little  Bunny." 

The  boys  promised  not  to  speak  a  single 
word  ;  and  Jonas,  after  unfastening  the  fen 
der  from  the  front  of  the  box,  moved  it  along 


THE   STEEPLE  TRAP.  51 

until  there  was  an  opening  large  enough  for 
him  to  get  his  hand  in.  Rollo  and  James 
stood  by  silently,  and  somewhat  anxiously, 
waiting  the  result. 

When  the  squirrel  saw  Jonas's  hand  in 
truding  itself  into  the  box,  he  retreated  to 
the  farther  corner,  and  curled  himself  up 
there,  with  his  tail  close  down  upon  his 
back.  Jonas  followed  him  with  his  hand, 
saying,  in  a  soothing  tone, 

"  Bunny,  Bunny,  poor  little  Bunny." 

He  reached  him,  at  length,  and  put  his 
hand  very  gently  over  him,  and  slowly  and 
cautiously  drew  him  out. 

Rollo  and  James  gave  a  sort  of  hysteric 
laugh,  and  instantly  clapped  their  hands  to 
their  mouths,  to  suppress  it;  but  they 
looked  at  one  another,  and  at  Jonas,  with 
great  delight. 

Jonas  gradually  brought  the  squirrel  over 
the  bowl,  and  prepared  to  dip  his  ears  into 
the  dye.  It  was  a  strange  situation  for  a 
squirrel  to  be  in,  and  he  did  not  like  it  at 
all;  and  just  at  the  instant  when  his  ears 
were  going  into  the  dye,  he  twisted  his  head 
around,  and  planted  his'  little  fore  teeth 
directly  upon  Jonas's  thumb.  As  might 


52  THE    STEEPLE   TKAP. 

have  been  supposed,  teeth  which  were  sharp 
and  powerful  enough  to  go  through  a  wal 
nut  shell,  would  not  be  likely  to  be  stopped 
by  a  leathern  glove ;  and  Jonas,  startled  by 
the  sudden  cut,  gave  a  twitch  with  his  hand, 


and,  at  the  same  instant,  let  go  of  the  squir 
rel.  Bunny  grasped  the  edge  of  the  bowl 
with  his  paws,  and  leaped  out,  bringing  the 
bowl  itself  at  the .  same  instant  over  upon 
him,  spattering  him  all  over  from  head  to 
tail  with  the  blue  dye. 


THE   STEEPLE   TRAP.  58 

The  boys  looked  aghast  for  a  minute ; 
but  when  they  saw  him  racing  off  as  fast 
as  possible,  and  running  up  a  neighboring 
tree,  Jonas  burst  into  a  laugh,  which  the 
other  boys  joined,  and  they  continued  it 
loud  and  long,  till  the  woods  rang  again. 

"  Well,  we  have  spotted  him,  at  any  rate," 
said  Jonas.  "  We  will  call  him  Leopard." 

The  boys  then  looked  at  Jonas's  bite,  and 
found  that  it  was  not  a  very  serious  one. 
In  fact,  Jonas  wras  a  little  ashamed  at  hav 
ing  let  go  for  so  small  a  wound.  However, 
it  was  then  too  late  to  regret  it,  and  the 
boys  returned  slowly  home. 

As  they  were  walking  home,  (James  said 
that  the  squirrel's  back  looked  wet,  where 
the  dye  went  upon  him,  but  he  did  not 
^.hink  it  looked  very  blue. 

"  No,"  said  Jonas,  "  it  does  not  generally 
look  blue  at  first,  but  it  grows  blue  after 
wards.  It  will  be  a  bright  color  enough 
before  you  see  him  again,  I  will  warrant." 

So  they  walked  along  home ;  the  fender 
was  put  back  in  its  place  in  the  garret,  the 
bowl  in  the  house,  and  the  box  in  the  barn. 
Jonas  soon  forgot  that  he  had  been  bitten, 


54  THE   STEEPLE   TRAP, 

and  the  squirrel,  as  soon  as  his  back  was 
dry,  thought  no  more  of  the  whole  affair,  but 
turned  his  attention  entirely  to  the  busi 
ness  of  digging  a  hole  to  store  his  nuts  in 
for  the  ensuing  winter. 


FIRES    IN   THE   WOODS. 

All  the  large  trees  that  Jonas  had  felled 
beyond  the  brook,  he  cut  up  into  lengths, 
and  hauled  them  up  into  the  yard,  and  made 
a  great  high  wood-pile  of  them,  higher  than  • 
his  head ;  but  all  the  branches,  and  the 
small  bushes,  with  all  the  green  leaves  upon 
them,  lay  about  the  ground  in  confusion. 
Hollo  asked  him  what  he  was  going  to  do 
with  them.  He  said,  after  they  were  dry, 
he  should  burn  them  up,  and  that  they 
would  make  a  splendid  bonfire. 

They  lay  there  drying  a  good  many  weeks. 
The  leaves  turned  yellow  and  brown,  and 
the  little  twigs  and  sticks  became  gradually 
dry  and  brittle.  Rollo  used  to  walk  down 
there  often,  to  see  how  the  drying  went  on, 
and  sometimes  he  would  bring  up  a  few  of 


THE    STEEPLE   TRAP.  55 

the  bushes,  and  put  them  on  the  kitchen 
fire,  to  see  whether  they  were  dry  enough  to 
burn. 

At  last,  late  in  the  autumn,  one  cool  after 
noon,  Jonas  asked  Rollo  to  go  down  with 
him  and  help  him  pile  up  the  bushes  in 
heaps,  for  he  was  going  to  burn  them  that 
evening.  Rollo  wanted  very  much  that  his 
cousins  James  and  Lucy  should  see  the  fires ; 
and  so  he  asked  his  mother  to  let  him  go  and 
ask  them  to  come  and  take  tea  there  that 
night,  and  go  out  with  them  in  the  evening 
to  the  burning.  She  consented,  and  Rollo 
went.  Lucy  promised  to  come  just  before 
tea-time,  and  James  came  then,  with  Rollo, 
to  help  him  pile  the  bushes  up. 

Jonas  said  that  the  boys  might  make  one 
little  pile  of  their  own  if  they  wished  ;  and 
told  them  that  they  must  first  make  a  pile 
of  solid  sticks  and  dry  rotten  logs  as  large 
as  they  could  lift  or  roll,  so  as  to  have  a 
good  solid  fire  underneath,  and  then  cover 
these  up  with  brush  as  high  as  they  could 
pile  it,  so  as  to  make  a  great  blaze,  He  told 
them  also  that  they  must  make  their  pile 
where  it  would  not  burn  any  of  the  trees 
which  he  had  left  standing,  for  he  had  left 


50  THE  STEEPLE   TKAP. 

a  great  many  of  the  large  oaks,  and  beeches, 
and  pines,  to  ornament  tlie  ground  and 
make  a  shade. 

Rollo  and  James  decided  to  make  cheir 
pile  near  the  brook,  between  the  bridge 
which  Jonas  made  of  a  tree,  and  the  old 
wigwam  which  they  had  made  some  time  be 
fore  of  boughs.  They  got  together  a  great 
heap  of  solid  wood,  as  large  pieces  as  they 
could  lift,  and  at  one  end  they  put  in  a 
great  deal  of  birch  bark,  Avhich  they  stripped 
off,  in  great  sheets,  from  an  old,  decayed 
birch  tree,  Avhich  had  been  lying  on  the 
ground  near  for  half  a  century.  When  this 
was  done,  they  began  to  pile  on  the  bushes 
and  brush,  taking  care  to  leave  the  end 
where  the  birch  bark  was,  open.  After  they 
had  piled  it  up  as  high  as  they  could  reach, 
Rollo  clambered  up  to  the  top  of  it,  and 
James  reached  the  long  bushes  up  to  him, 
and  he  arranged  them  regularly,  with  the 
tops  out.  So  they  worked  all  the  afternoon, 
and  by  the  time  they  had  got  their  pile  done} 
they  found  that  Jonas  had  thrown  almost 
all  the  rest  of  the  bushes  into  heaps :  and 
then  they  went  home  to  tea. 

They  found  Lucy  there,  and  they  were 


THE   STEEPLE  TRAP.  57 

all  so  eager  to  go  to  the  bonfires,  that  they 
did  not  eat  much  supper.  Their  father 
told  them  that,  as  they  had  so  little  appe 
tite,  they  had  better  carry  down  some 
potatoes  and  apples,  and  roast  them  oy  the 
fires.  They  thought  this  an  excellent  plan, 
and  ran  into  the  store-room  to  get  them. 
Their  mother  gave  them  a  basket  to  put  the 
potatoes  and  apples  into,  and  a  little  salt 
folded  up  in  a  paper.  They"  were  then  so 
impatient  to  go  that  their  parents  said  they 
might  set  off  with  Jonas,  and  they  them 
selves  would  come  along  very  soon. 

So  Jonas  and  the  three  children  walked  on. 
Rollo  carried  the  basket,  and  James  a  laii- 
tern ;  and  Jonas,  as  he  went  along,  made, 
with  his  penknife,  some  flat,  wooden  spoons, 
to  eat  their  potatoes  with.  They  came  to 
the  bridge,  and  all  got  safely  over,  though 
Lucy  was  a  little  afraid  at  first. 

They  played  around  there  a  few  minutes, 
as  the  twilight  was  coming  on;  and,  soon 
after,  they  saw  Rollo 's  father  and  mother 
coming  down  through  the  trees,  on  the. 
ether  side  of  the  brook.  They  stopped  on 
that  side,  as  Rollo's  mother  did  not  like  to 


58  THE   STEEPLE    TRAP. 

come  across  the  bridge.  Pretty  soon  they 
called  out  to  Jonas  to  light  the  fires. 

Jonas  then  took  a  large  piece  of  birch 
bark,  and  touched  the  corner  of  it  to  the 
lamp  in  the  lantern,  and  when  it  was  well 
on  fire,  he  laid  it  carefully  on  the  ground. 
The  bark  began  to  blaze  up  very  bright, 
sending  out  volumes  of  thick  smoke  and 
dense  flame,  writhing,  and  curling,  and 
snapping,  as  it  lay  on  the  ground.  The 
light  shone  brightly  on  the  grass  and  sticks 
around. 

"There,"  said  Jonas,  "that  will  burn 
some  time  ;  now  you  may  light  your  torches 
from  that." 

"Torches?"  said  Hollo,  "we  have  not 
got  any  torches." 

"  Have  not  you  made  any  torches  ?  O, 
well,  —  I  will  make  you  some  in  a  minute." 

So  he  took  out  his  knife,  and  selected 
three  long  slender  stems  of  bushes,  and 
trimmed  them  up,  and  cut  off  the  tops. 
Then  he  made  a  little  split  in  the  top  end, 
and  slipped  in  a  piece  of  birch  bark.  Then 
he  handed  them  to  the  children,  one  to  each, 
and  said,  "There  are  your  torches;  now 


THE   STEEPLE  TRAP.  59 

you  can  light  your  fires  without  burning 
your  fingers." 

So  they  took  their  torches,  and  held  the 
ends  over  the  flame  of  the  piece  of  birch 
bark,  which,  however,  had  by  this  time 
nearly  burned  out.  Lucy's  took  fire,  but 
Rollo's  and  James's  did  not,  at  first;  and 
as  they  pressed  their  torches  down  more 
and  more  to  make  them  light,  they  only 
smothered  what  little  flame  was  left,  and 
put  it  out. 

"  O  dear  me  !  "  said  Rollo. 

Lucy  had  gone  a  little  way  towards  a 
pile  ;  but  when  she  saw  what  was  the  mat 
ter,  she  came  back  and  said,  "  Here,  —  light 
it  by  mine."  So  the  boys  held  their  torches 
over  hers  until  they  were  all  three  in  a 
bright  blaze.  They  then  carried  them 
along,  waving  them  in  the  air,  and  lighting 
pile  after  pile,  until  the  whole  forest  seemed 
to  be  in  a  flame. 

The  children  stood  still  a  few  moments, 
gazing  on  the  fires,  and  on  the  extraordi 
nary  effect  which  the  light  produced  upon 
the  objects  around.  It  was  a  singular 
scene.  Flashing  and  crackling  flames  rose 
high  from  the  heaps  which  were  on  fire,  and 


GO  THE    STEEPLE  TRAP. 

shed  a  strong  but  unsteady  light  on  the 
trees,  the  ground,  and  the  banks  of  the 
brook,  and  penetrated  deep  into  the  forest 
on  every  side.  Rollo  called  upon  James  and 
Lucy  to  look  at  his  father  and  mother,  who 
were  across  the  brook ;  they  stood  there 
under  the  trees,  almost  invisible  before,  but 
UOAV  the  bright  light  shone  strongly  upon 
their  faces  and  forms,  and  cast  upon  them  a 
clear  and  brilliant  illumination,  which  was 
strongly  contrasted  with  the  dark  depths  of 
the  forest  behind  them. 

The  children  were  silent,  and  stood  still 
for  a  few  minutes,  gazing  on  the  scene  with 
feelings  of  admiration  and  awe.  They  ex 
pected  to  have  capered  about  and  laughed, 
but  they  found  that  they  had  no  disposition 
to  do  so.  The  enjoyment  they  felt  was  not 
of  that  kind  which  leads  children  to  caper 
and  laugh.  They  stood  still,  and  looked 
silently  and  soberly  on  the  flashing  flames, 
the  luiid  light,  the  bright  red  reflections  on 
the  Avoods,  the  banks,  and  the  Avater,  —  and 
on  the  volumes  of  glowing  smoke  and  sparks 
Avhich  ascended  to  the  sky. 

Before  long,  however,  the  light  fuel  upon 
the  top  of  the  piles  Avas  burned  up,  and  there 


THE   STEEPLE  TRAP.  61 

remained  great  glowing  heaps  of  embers,  and 
logs  of  wood  still  flaming.  These  the  boys 
began  to  poke  about  with  loner  poles  that 
Jonas  had  cut  for  them,  to  make  them  burn 
brighter,  and  to  see  the  sparks  go  up.  Pres 
ently  they  heard  their  father  calling  them. 

The  boys  all  stopped  to  listen. 

"  We  are  going  home,"  said  he  ;  "  we  shall 
take  cold  if  we  stand  still  here.  You  may 
stay,  however,  with  Jonas,  only  you  must 
not  sit  down." 

So  Rollo's  father  and  mother  turned  away, 
and  walked  along  back  towards  the  house, 
the  light  shining  more  and  more  faintly  upon 
them,  until  they  were  lost  among  the  trees. 

"  Why  do  you  suppose  we  must  not  sit 
down?"  said  Lucy. 

"  Because,"  said  Jonas,  "  they  are  afraid 
you  will  take  cold.  As  long  as  you  run 
about  and  play  around  the  fires,  you  keep 
warm." 

"  O,  then  we  will  run  about  and  play  fast 
enough,"  said  James.  "  I  know  what  I  am 
going  to  do." 

So  he  took  a  large  flat  piece  of  hemlock 
bark,  which  he  found  upon  the  ground,  and 
began  tearing  off  strips  of  birch  bark  from 
the  old  tree,  and  piling  them  upon  it. 


62  THE   STEEPLE   TRAP. 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  ?  "  said  Lucy 

"  O,  I  am  going  to  play  steam-boat  on 
fire,"  said  lie ;  and  he  took  up  the  .piece  of 
bark  with  the  little  pile  of  combustibles 
upon  it,  and  carried  it  down  to  the  edge  of 
the  brook.  Then  he  went  back  and  got  his 
torch  stick,  and  put  a  fresh  piece  of  birch 
bark  in  the  split  end,  and  lighted  it,  and 
and  then  came  back  to  the  brook,  walking 
slowly  lest  his  torch  should  go  out. 

Lucy  held  his  torch  for  him  Avhile  he 
gently  put  his  steam-boat  on  the  water  ;  and 
then  he  lighted  it  with  his  torch,  and  pushed 
it  out.  It  floated  down,  all  blazing  as  it  was, 
to  the  great  delight  of  the  three  children, 
and  astonishment  of  all  the  little  fishes  in 
the  brook,  who  could  not  imagine  what  the 
blazing  wonder  could  be. 

The  children  followed  it  along  down  the 
brook,  and  began  to  pelt  it  with  stones,  and 
soon  got  into  a  high  frolic.  But  as  they  were 
very  careful  not  to  hit  one  another  with  the 
stones,  nor  to  speak  harshly  or  cross,  they 
enjoyed  it  very  much.  When  at  last  the 
steam-boat  was  fairly  pelted  to  pieces,  and 
the  blackened  fragments  of  birch  bark 
were  scattered  over  the  water,  and  floating 


THE   STEEPLE   TRAP.  63 

away  down  the  stream,  they  began  to  think 
of  roasting  their  com  and  potatoes,  which 
they  did  very  successfully  over  the  remains 
of  the  fires.  When  they  had  nearly  finished 
eating,  Hollo  suddenly  exclaimed,  — 

"  O,  I  will  tell  you  what  we  will  do  ;  we 
will^go  and  set  our  wigwam  on  fire !  " 

Rollo  pointed  to  the  wigwam.  James  and 
Lucy  looked,  and  observed  that  it  had  been 
dried  and  browned  in  the  sun,  and  Rollo 
thought  it  was  no  longer  good  for  any  thing 
as  a  wigwam,  but  would  make  a  capital  bon 
fire.  He  proposed  that  they  should  all  go 
into  it  and  sit  down,  and  put  a  torch  near 
the  side  so  as  to  set  it  on  fire,  as  if  acciden 
tally.  They  would  go  on  talking  as  if  they 
did  not  see  it,  and  when  the  flames  burst  out, 
they  would  jump  up  and  run  out,  crying, 
Fire !  as  people  do  when  their  houses  get  on 
fire. 

Lucy  said  she  should  not  like  to  do  that. 
She  should  be  afraid,  she  said.  The  sparks 
would  fall  down  upon  her  and  burn  her.  So 
the  boys  gave  that  plan  up.  Then  James 
proposed  that  they  should  make  believe  that 
they  were  savages,  going  to  set  fire  to  a  town. 
The  wigwam  was  to  be  the  town.  They 


64  THE   STEEPLE  TKAP. 

would  take  their  torches,  and  all  go  and  set 
it  on  fire  in  several  places. 

"  But,  then,  /could  not  help,"  said  Lucyr 
"for  women  do  not  go  to  war." 

"  O  yes  they  do,  if  they  are  savages,"  said 
James.  "  We  play  that  we  are  savages,  you 
see." 

So  it  was  all  agreed  to.  They  lighted 
their  torches,  and  marched  along,  waving 
them  in  the  air,  until  they  came  to  the  wig 
wam,  and  then  they  danced  around  it,  sing 
ing  and  shouting  as  they  set  it  on  fire  in 
many  places  on  all  sides.  The  flames  spread 
rapidly,  and  flashed  up  high  into  the  air, 
and  soon  there  was  nothing  left  of  the  poor 
wigwam  but  a  few  smoking  and  blackened 
sticks  lying  on  the  ground. 

The  children  then  crept  along  over  the 
bridge,  and  went  towards  home.  There 
were  still  great  beds  of  burning  embers  re 
maining,  and  in  some  places  the  remains  of 
logs  and  stumps  were  blazing  brightly.  And 
that  night,  when  Hollo  went  to  bed,  he  lay 
looking  out  the  window  which  was  towards 
the  woods,  and  saw  the  light  still  shining 
among  the  trees,  and  the  smoke  slowly  rising 
from  the  fires,  and  floating  away  through 
the  air. 


THE  HALO   ROUND  THE  MOON,- 

OK, 

LUCY'S  VISIT. 


67 
THE  HALO  ROUND  THE  MOON; 

OB, 

LUCY'S   VISIT. 


"A  BOUND   RAINBOW." 


ABOUT  six  miles  from  the  house  where 
Rollo  lived,  there  was  a  mountain  called 
Benalgon,  which  was  famous  for  bears  and 
blueberries.  There  were  no  bears  on  it,  but 
there  were  plenty  of  blueberries.  The  rea 
son  why  it  was  so  famous  for  bears,  when  in 
fact  there  were  none  there,  was  because 
the  boys  and  girls  that  went  there  for  blue 
berries  every  year,  used  to  see  black  logs 
and  stumps  among  the  trees  and  bushes  of 
the  mountain,  and  they  would  run  away 
very  hastily,  and  insist  upon  it,  when  they 
got  down  the  mountain,  that  they  had  seen 
a  bear. 

Now,  Hollo's  father  and  mother,  together 


68    THE  HALO  EOUND  THE  MOON; 

with  his  Uncle  George,  formed  a  plan  for  go. 
ing  up  this  mountain  after  blueberries,  and 
they  were  going  to  take  Rollo  and  his  cousin 
Lucy  with  them.  Uncle  George  and  cousin 
Lucy  were  to  come  in  a  chaise  to  Rollo's 
house  immediately  after  breakfast,  and  Rollo 
was  to  ride  with  them,  and  his  father  and 
mother  were  to  go  in  another  chaise. 

Rollo  got  his  little  basket  to  pick  his  blue 
berries  in,  all  ready  the  night  before,  and  he 
got  a  string  to  tie  around  his  neck,  intend 
ing  to  hang  his  basket  upon  it,  so  that  he 
could  have  both  his  hands  at  liberty,  and 
pick  faster.  He  also  thought  he  would  take 
all  the  heavy  things  out  of  his  pocket,  so 
that  he  could  run  the  faster,  in  case  he 
should  see  any  bears.  He  put  them  all  on 
a  window  in  the  shed.  The  things  were  a 
knife,  a  piece  of  chalk,  two  white  pebble 
stones,  and  a  plummet.  When  he  got  them 
all  out,  he  asked  Jonas,  who  was  splitting 
wood  in  the  shed,  if  he  would  not  take  care 
of  them  for  him,  till  he  came  back. 

"  Why,  yes,"  said  Jonas,  "  I  will  take  care 
of  them  if  you  wish ;  but  what  are  you  go 
ing  to  leave  them  for  ?  " 


OR,  LUCY'S  VISIT.  60 

"  O,  so  that  I  can  run  faster,"  said  Rollo. 

uRun  faster?"  I  do  not  think  you  will 
run  much,  up  old  Benalgon,  unless  he  holds 
his  back  down  lower  than  when  I  went  up." 

Rollo  did  not  mean  that  he  was  going  to 
run  up  the  mountain,  but  he  did  riot  ex 
plain  what  he  did  mean,  for  he  thought  that 
Jonas  would  laugh  at  him,  if  he  told  him  he 
was  afraid  of  the  bears.  So  he  said, 

"Jonas,  don't  you  wish  you  were  going 
with  us?" 

"  I  should  like  it  well  enough,  but  I  must 
stay  at  home  and  mind  my  work." 

"  I  wish  you  could  go.  I  will  go  and  ask 
my  father  if  he  will  not  let  you." 

Rollo  ran  into  the  house  with  great  haste 
and  eagerness,  leaving  all  the  doors  open, 
and  calling  out,  "Father,  father,"  as  soon  as 
he  had  begun  to  open  the  parlor  door. 

"  Father,  father,"  said  he,  running  up  to 
him,  "  I  wish  you  would  let  Jonas  go  with 
us  to-morrow." 

Now  Rollo's  father  had  come  home  but  a 
short  time  before,  and  was  just  seated  quiet 
ly  in  his  arm-chair,  reading  a  neAVSpaper, 
and  Rollo  came  up  to  him,  pulling  down  the 


70    THE  HALO  ROUND  THE- MOON; 

paper  with  his  hands,  and  looking  up  into 
his  father's  face,  so  as  to  stop  his  reading  at 
once.  Heedless  boys  very  often  come  to  ask 
favors  in  this  way. 

His  father  gently  moved  him  back  and 
said, 

"  No,  my  son,  it  is  not  convenient  for  Jo 
nas  to  go  to-morrow.  Besides,  I  am  busy 
now,  and  cannot  talk  with  you ;  —  you  must 
go  away." 

Rollo  turned  away  disappointed,  and  went 
slowly  back  through  the  kitchen.  His  moth 
er,  who  was  there,  and  who  heard  all  that 
passed,  as  the  doors  were  open,  said  to  him, 
as  he  walked  by  her,  "  What  a  foolish  way 
that  was  to  ask  him,  Rollo !  You  might  have 
known  it- would  have  done  no  good." 

Rollo  did  not  answer,  but  he  went  and 
sat  down  on  the  step  of  the  door,  and  was 
just  beginning  to  think  what  the  foolishness 
was  in  his  way  of  asking  his  father,  when  a 
little  bird  came  hopping  along  in  the  yard. 
He  ran  in  to  ask  his  mother  to  give  him 
some  milk  to  feed  the  bird  with.  She 
smiled,  and  told  him  milk  was  good  for  kit 
tens,  but  not  for  birds ;  and  she  gave  him 


OR,  LUCY'S  VISIT.  73 

some  crumbs  of  bread.  Rollo  threw  the 
crumbs  out,  but  they  only  frightened  the 
little  thing  away. 

That  night,  when  Rollo  went  to  bed,  his 
father  said,  that  when  lie  was  all  ready,  he 
would  come  up  and  see  him.  When  he 
came  into  his  chamber,  Rollo  called  out  to 
him, 

"  O,  father,  look  out  the  window,  and 
see  what  a  beautiful  ring  there  is  round 
the  moon." 

"  So  there  is,"  said  his  father ;  ''"  I  am 
rather  sorry  to  see  that." 

"  Sorry,  father !  why  ?  It  is  beautiful, 
I  think." 

"  It  does  look  pretty,  but  it  is  a  sign  of 
rain  to-morrow." 

"  Of  rain  ?  O  no,  father ;  it  is  a  kind 
of  a  rainbow.  It  is  a  round  rainbow.  1 
am  sure  it  will  be  pleasant  to-morrow." 

"  Very  well,"  said  his  father,  "  we  shall 
see  in  the  morning."  Then  he  sat  down 
on  Hollo's  bed-side  some  time,  talking  with 
him  on  various  subjects,  and  then  heard 
him  say  his  prayers.  At  length  he  took 
the  light,  and  bade  Rollo  good  night. 


72    THE  HALO  BOUND  THE  MOON; 

Rollo's  eye  caught  another  view  of  th*? 
moon  as  his  father  was  going,  and  he  said, 

"O,  father,  just  look  at  the  moon  once 
more ;  that  is  a  rainbow ;  I  see  the  colors. 
I  expect  it  will  grow  into  a  large  one,  such 
as  you  told  me  was  a  sign  of  fair  weather. 
I  will  watch  it." 

"Yes,"  said  his  father,  "you  can  watch 
it  as  you  go  to  sleep." 

So  Hollo  laid  his  face  upon  his  pillow  in 
such  a  way  that  he  could  see  the  moon 
through  the  window;  and  he  began  to 
watch  the  bright  circle  around  it,  but  be 
fore  it  grew  any  bigger,  he  was  fast  asleep. 


WHO   KNOWS    BEST,   A   LITTLE    BOY   OR   HIS 
FATHER  ? 

The  next  morning,  Rollo  awoke  early, 
and  he  was  very  much  pleased  to  see,  as 
soon  as  he  opened  his  eyes,  that  the  sun 
was  shining  in  at  the  windows.  He  was 
not  only  pleased  to  find  that  the  prospect 
was  so  good  for  a  pleasant  ride,  but  his 
vanity  was  gratified  at  the  thought  that  it 


on,  LUCY'S  VISIT.  73 

had  turned  out  that  he  knew  better  about 
the  weather  than  his  father.  He  began  to 
dress  himself,  as  far  as  he  could  without 
help,  and  was  preparing  to  hasten  down  to 
his  father,  to  tell  him  that  it  was  going  to 
be  a  pleasant  day.  When  he  was  nearly 
dressed,  he  was  surprised  to  observe  that 
the  bright  sunlight  on  the  wall  was  gradu 
ally  fading  away,  and  at  length  it  wholly  dis 
appeared.  He  went  to  look  out  the  window 
to  see  what  was  the  cause.  He  found  that 
there  was  a  broad  expanse  of  dark  cloud 
covering  the  eastern  sky,  excepting  a  nar 
row  strip  quite  low  down,  near  the  horizon. 
When  the  sun  first  rose,  it  shone  brightly 
through  this  narrow  zone  of  clear  sky  ;  but 
now  it  had  ascended  a  little  higher,  and 
gone  behind  the  cloud. 

"  Never  mind,"  said  Rollo  to  himself. 
"The  cloud  is  not  so  very  large  after  all, 
and  the  sun  will  come  out  again  above  it 
when  it  gets  up  a  little  higher." 

Rollo  came  down  to  breakfast,  and  he 
went  out  into  the  yard  every  two  or  three 
minutes,  to  look  at  the  sky.  The  cloud 
seemed  to  extend,  so  that  the  sun  did  not 
come  out  of  it,  as  he  expected,  but  still  he 


74    THE  HALO  ROUND  THE  MOOX  ; 

thought  it  was  going  to  be  pleasant.  Chil 
dren  generally  think  it  is  going  to  be  pleas 
ant,  whenever  they  want  to  go  away, 

His  father  thought  it  was  probably  going 
to  rain,  and  that  at  any  rate  it  was  very 
doubtful  whether  Uncle  George  would  come* 
However,  he  said  they  should  soon  see,  and, 
true  enough,  just  as  they  were  rising  from 
the  breakfast  table,  a  chaise  drove  up  to 
the  door,  and  out  jumped  Uncle  George 
and  cousin  Lucy. 

Lucy  was  a  very  pleasant  little  blue-eyed 
girl,  two  or  three  years  older  than  Hollo. 
She  had  a  small  tin  pail  in  her  hand,  with  a 
cover  upon  it. 

"  Good  morning,  Rollo,"  said  she.  "  Have 
you  got  your  basket  ready  ?  " 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo;  "but  I  am  afraid  it 
is  going  to  rain." 

While  the  children  were  saying  this, 
Uncle  George  said  to  Rollo's  father, 

"  I  suppose  we  shall  have  to  give  up  our 
expedition  to-day.  I  am  in  hopes  we  are 
going  to  have  some  rain." 

"  In  hopes,"  thought  Rollo  ;  "  that  is  very 
strange  when  we  want  to  go  a  blueberry- 
ing." 


OR,  LUCY'S  VISIT.  75 

Rollo's  father  and  mother  and  his  uncle 
looked  at  the  clouds  all  around.  They  con 
cluded  that  there  was  every  appearance  of 
rain,  and  that  it  would  be  best  to  postpone 
their  excursion,  and  then  went  into  the 
house.  Hollo  was  very  confident  it  would 
not  rain,  and  \vas  very  eager  to  have  them 
go.  He  asked  Lucy  if  she  did  not  think 
it  was  going  to  be  pleasant,  but  Lucy 
was  more  modest  and  reasonable  than  he 
was,  and  said  that  she  did  not  know;  she 
could  not  judge  of  the  weather  so  well  as 
her  father. 

Hollo  began  by  this  time  to  be  consid 
erably  out  of  humor.  He  said  he  knew  it 
was  not  going  to  rain,  and  he  did  not  see 
why  they  might  not  go.  He  did  not  believe 
it  would  rain  a  drop  all  day. 

Lucy  just  then  pointed  down  to  a  little 
dark  spot  on  the  stone  step  of  the  door, 
where  a  drop  had  just  fallen,  and  asked 
Rollo  what  he  called  that. 

"  And  that,  —  and  that,  —  and  that,"  said 
she,  pointing  to  several  other  drops. 

Rollo  at  first  insisted  that  that  was  not 
rain,  but  some  little  spots  on  the  stone. 

Then  Lucy  reached  out  her  hand  and 
said, 


76    THE  HALO  ROUND  THE  MOON; 

"  Hold  out  your  hand  so,  Rollo,  and  you 
will  feel  the  drops  coming  down  out  of  the 
sky." 

Hollo  held  out  his  hand  a  moment,  but 
then  immediately  withdrew  it,  saying,  im 
patiently,  that  he  did  not  care ;  it  was  not 
rain ;  at  any  rate  it  was  only  a  little  sprink 
ling. 

Lucy  observed  that  Rollo  was  getting 
very  much  out  of  humor,  and  she  tried  to 
please  him  by  saying, 

"Rollo,  I  would  not  mind.  If  it  does 
rain,  I  will  ask  my  father  to  let  me  stay  and 
play  with  you  to-day,  and  we  can  have  a 
fine  time  up  in  your  little  room." 

"  No,  we  cannot,"  said  Rollo ;  "  and  be 
sides,  they  will  not  let  you  stay,  I  know. 
I  went  yesterday  to  ask  my  father  to  let 
Jonas  go  with  us  to-day,  and  he  would 
not." 

It  was  certainly  very  unreasonable  for 
Rollo  to  imagine  that  his  father  and  uncle 
would  be  unwilling  to  have  Lucy  stay  just 
because  it  had  not  been  convenient  to  let 
Jonas  go  with  them.  But  when  children 
are  out  of  humor,  they  are  always  very 
unreasonable. 


OR,  LUCY'S  VISIT.  77 

"Why  would  not  he  let  Jonas  go?" 
asked  Lucy. 

"  I  do  •  not  know.  Mother  said  it  was  be 
cause  I  did  not  ask  him  right." 

"How  did  you  ask  him?" 

"  O,  I  interrupted  him.     He  was  reading." 

"  O,  that  is  not  the  way.  I  never  inter 
rupt  my  father  if  I  want  to  ask  him  any 
thing." 

"  Suppose  he  is  busy,  and  you  want  to 
know  that  very  minute ;  what  do  you  do  ?  " 

"  I  Avill  show  you.  Come  with  me  and  I 
will  ask  him  to  let  me  stay  with  you  to-day." 

So  Lucy  and  Rollo  walked  in.  When 
they  came  to  the  parlor  door,  they  saw  that 
their  parents  were  sitting  on  the  sofa  talk 
ing  about  other  things. 

Rollo  stopped  at  the  door,  but  Lucy  went 
in  gently.  She  walked  up  to  her  father's 
side,  and  stood  there  still. 

Her  father  took  no  notice  of  her  at  first, 
but  went  on  talking  with  Rollo's  father. 
Lucy  stood  very  patiently  until,  after  a  few 
minutes,  her  father  stopped  talking,  and  said, 

"  Lucy,  my  dear,  do  you  want  to  speak  to 
me?" 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Lucy,  "  I  wanted  to  ask 


78    THE  HALO  BOUND  THE  MOON  : 

you  if  you  were  willing  to  let  me  stay  here 
to-day  and  play  with  Rollo,  if  you  do  not  go 
to  the  mountain." 

"  I  do  not  know,"  said  her  father,  hesi 
tating,  and  patting  Lucy  on  the  head  — 
"  that  is  a  new  idea ;  however,  I  believe  I 
have  no  objection." 

Lucy  ran  back  joyfully  to  Rollo,  and  after 
a  short  time,  her  father  went  home.  Rollo, 
however,  did  not  feel  in  any  better  humor, 
and  all  Lucy's  endeavors  to  engage  him 
in  some  amusement,  failed.  She  proposed 
building  with  bricks,  or  going  up  into  his 
little  room,  and  drawing  pictures  on  their 
slates,  or  getting  his  story-books  out  and 
reading  stories,  and  various  other  things, 
but  Rollo  would  not  be  pleased. 

Rollo  ought,  now,  when  he  found  that  he 
must  be  disappointed  about  his  ride,  to  have 
immediately  banished  it  from  his  mind  al 
together,  and  turned  his  thoughts  to  other 
pleasures;  but  like  all  ill-humored  people, 
he  would  keep  thinking  and  talking,  all  the 
time,  about  the  thing  which  caused  his  ill- 
humor.  So  he  sat  in  a  large  back  entry, 
where  he  and  Lucy  were,  looking  out  at  the 
door,  and  saying  a  great  many,  ill-natured 


on,  LUCY'S  VISIT.  79 

things  about  the  weather,  and  his  father's 
giving  up  the  ride  just  for  a  little  sprinkling 
of  rain  that  would  not  last  half  an  hour.  He 
said  it  was  a  shame,  too,  for  it  to  rain  that 
day,  just  because  he  was  going  to  ride. 

Just  then,  his  father  spoke  to  him  from 
the  window,  and  called  him  in. 

He  and  Lucy  went  in  together  into  the 
parlor. 

"  Hollo,"  said  his  father,  "  did  you  know 
you  were  doing  very  wrong  ?  " 

Rollo  felt  a  little  guilty,  but  he  said  rather 
faintly,  "  No,  sir,  I  was  not  doing  any  thing." 

"  You  are  committing  a  great  many  sins, 
all  at  once." 

Rollo  was  silent.  He  knew  his  father 
meant  sins  of  the  heart. 

"  Your  heart  is  in  a  very  wicked  state. 
You  are  under  the  dominion  of  some  of  the 
worst  of  feelings  ;  you  are  self-conceited,  un 
grateful,  undutiful,  unjust,  selfish,  and,"  lie 
added  in  a  lower  and  more  solemn  tone, 
"  even  impious." 

Rollo  thought  that  these  were  heavy 
charges  to  bring  upon  him  ;  but  his  father 
spoke  calmly  and  kindly,  and  he  knew  that 


80    THE  HALO  ROUND  THE  MOON; 

he  could  easily  show  that  what  he  said  was 
true. 

"You  are  self-conceited — vainly  imagin 
ing  that  you,  a  little  boy  of  seven  years  old, 
can  judge  better  that  your  father  and  moth 
er,  and  obstinately  persisting  in  your  opin 
ion  that  it  is  not  going  to  rain,  when  the 
rain  has  actually  commenced,  and  is  falling 
faster  and  faster.  You  are  ungrateful,  to 
speak  reproachfully  of  me,  and  give  me  pain, 
by  your  ill-will,  when  I  have  been  planning 
this  excursion,  in  a  great  degree,  for  your 
enjoyment,  and  only  give  it  up  because  I 
am  absolutely  compelled  to  do  it  by  a  storm  ; 
undutifid,  in  showing  such  a  repining,  un 
submissive  spirit  towards  your  father; 
unjust,  in  making  Lucy  and  all  of  us  suffer, 
because  }^ou  are  unwilling  to  submit  to  these 
circumstances  that  we  cannot  control;  sel 
fish,  in  being  unwilling  that  it  should  rain 
and  interfere  with  your  ride,  when  you  know 
that  rain  is  so  much  wanted  in  all  the  fields, 
all  over  the  country ;  and  what  is  worse  than 
all,  impious,  in  openly  rebelling  against  God, 
and  censuring  the  arrangements  of  His  provi 
dence,  and  pretending  to  think  that  they  are 
made  just  to  trouble  you." 


OR,  LUCY'S  VISIT.  81 

When  he  had  said  this,  he  paused  to  hear 
what  Rollo  would  say.  He  thought  that  if 
he  was  convinced  of  his  sin,  and  really  peni 
tent,  he  would  acknowledge  that  he  was 
wrong,  or  at  least  be  silent;  —  but  that  if, 
on  the  other  hand,  lie  were  still  unsubdued, 
he  would  go  to  making  excuses. 

After  a  moment's  pause,  Rollo  said,  —  "I 
did  not  know  that  there  was  need  of  rain  in 
the  fields." 

"Did  not  you?"  said  his  father.  "Did 
not  you  know  that  the  ground  was  very  dry, 
and  that  unless  we  have  rain  soon,  the  crops 
will  suffer  very  much?" 

"  No,  sir,"  said  Rollo. 

"  It  is  so,"  said  his  father  ;  "  and  this  rain, 
which  you  are  so  unwilling  to  have  descend, 
is  going  down  into  the  ground  all  over  the 
country,  and  into  the  roots  of  all  the  plants 
growing  in  the  fields,  carrying  in  the  nourish 
ment  which  will  swell  out  all  the  corn  and 
grain,  and  apples  and  pears.  In  a  few  days 
there  will  be  thousands  and  thousands  of 
dollars'  worth  of  fruit  and  food  more  than 
there  would  have  been  without  this  rain  ; 
and  yet  you  are  very  unwilling  to  have  it 


82     THE  HALO  ROUND  THE  MOON; 

come,  because  you  want   to    go   and  get  a 
few  blueberries  !  " 

Hollo  was  confounded,  and  had  not  a  word 
to  say. 

/'Now,  Hollo,"  continued  his  father, 
"  all  the  rest  of  us  are  disposed  to  be  good 
humored,  and  to  acquiesce  in  God's  deci 
sion,  and  try  to  have  a  happy  day  at 
home,  and  we  cannot  have  it  spoiled  by 
your  wicked  repinings.  So  you  must  go 
away  by  yourself,  until  you  feel  willing 
to  submit  pleasantly  and  with  good  humor. 
Then  you  may  come  back,  but  be  sure  not 
to  come  back  before." 


REPENTANCE. 

Now  there  was  in  Rollo's  house  a  small 
back  garret,  over  a  part  of  the  kitchen 
chamber,  which  had  one  small  window  in  it, 
looking  out  into  the  garden.  This  garret 
was  not  used,  and  Rollo's  father  had  put  a 
little  rocking-chair  there,  and  a  small  table 
with  a  Bible  on  it,  and  hung  some  old  maps 
about  it,  so  as  to  make  it  as  pleasant  a  little 


OB,   LUCY'S   VISIT.  8& 

place  as  he  could,  and  there  he  used  to  send 
Hollo  when  he  had  done  any  thing  very 
wrong,  or  when  he  was  sullen  and  ill-natured, 
that  he  might  reflect  in  solitude,  and  either 
return  a  good  boy,  or  else  stay  where  his 
bad  feelings  would  not  trouble  or  injure 
others.  His  father  had  put  in  marks,  too, 
at  several  places  in  the  Bible,  where  he 
thought  it  would  be  well  for  him  to  read  at 
such  times  ;  as  he  said  that  reading  suitable 
passages  in  the  Bible  would  be  more  likely 
to  bring  him  to  repentance,  than  any  other 
book. 

Rollo  knew  that  when  his  father  told  him 
to  go  away  by  himself,  he  meant  for  him  to 
go  into  this  back  garret.  So  he  turned 
round  and  walked  out  of  the  room.  As  he 
passed  up  the  back  stairs,  the  kitten  came 
frisking  around  him,  but  he  had  no  heart  to 
play  with  her,  and  walked  on.  .  He  then 
turned  and  went  up  the  narrow,  steep  stairs 
that  led  to  the  garret ;  they  were  rather 
more  like  a  ladder  than  like  stairs.  Rollo 
ascended  them,  and  then  sat  down  in  the 
little  rocking-chair.  The  rain  was  beating 
against  the  windows,  and  pattering  on  the 
roof  which  was  just  over  his  head. 


84     THE  HALO  ROUND  THE  MOON. 

/  It  is  sometimes  but  a  little  thing  which 
turns  the  whole  current  of  the  thoughts  and 
feelings.  In  Hollo's  case,  at  this  time,  it 


was  but  a  drop  of  water*  For  after  having 
sat  some  time  in  his  chair,  his  heart  remain 
ing  pretty  nearly  the  same,  a  drop  of  water, 
which,  somehow  or  other,  contrived  to  get 
through  some  crevice  in  the  boards  and 
shingles  over  his  head,  fell  exactly  into  the 
back  of  his  neck.  The  first  feeling  it  oc- 


OR,  LUCY'S  VISIT.  85 

casioued  was  an  additional  emotion  of  im 
patience  and  fretfulness.  But  he  next  be 
gan  to  think  how  unreasonable  and  wicked 
it  was  to  make  all  that  difficulty,  just  be 
cause  his  father  was  preventing  his  going 
out  to  stay  all  day  in  the  rain,  when  a  single 
drop  falling  upon  him  vexed  and  irritated 
him. 

He  also  looked  out  of  the  window  tow 
ards  the  garden,  and  the  dry  ground,  and 
all  the  trees  and  garden  vegetables  seemed 
to  be  drinking  in  the  rain  with  delight. 
That  made  him  think  of  the  vast  amount  of 
good  the  rain  was  doing,  and  he  saw  his 
own  selfishness  in  a  striking  point  of  view. 
In  a  word,  Hollo  was  now  beginning  to  be 
really  penitent.  The  tears  came  into  his 
eyes ;  but  they  were  tears  of  real  sorrow  for 
sin,  not  of  vexation  and  anger. 

He  took  up  his  little  Bible,  to  read  one  of 
the  passages,  as  his  father  had  advised  him. 
He  happened  to  open  at  a  mark  which  his 
father  had  put  in  at  the  parable  of  the 
prodigal  son.  The  first  verse  which  his  eye 
fell  upon,  was  the  verse,  "  I  will  arise  and  go 
to  my  father."  Hollo  thought  that  that  was 


80     THE  HALO  HOUND  THE  MOON; 

exactly  the  thing  for  him  to  do  —  to  go  and 
confess  his  fault  to  his  father. 

So  he  laid  down  his  little  Bible,  wiped  the 
tears  from  his  eyes,  and  went  down  stairs. 
He  met  his  father  in  the  entry.  He  went 
up  to  him,  and  took  his  hand,  and  said, 

"Father,  I  am  really  very  sorry  I  have 
been  so  naughty ;  I  will  try  to  be  a  good  boy 
now." 

His  father  stooped  down  and  kissed  him. 
"  I  am  very  glad  to  hear  it,  Hollo,"  said  he. 
"Now  you  may  go  and  find  Lucy.  I  be 
lieve  she  is  up  in  your  mother's  chamber." 

Hollo  went  off  quite  happy  in  pursuit  of 
Lucy.  He  found  her  sitting  on  a  cricket 
in  his  mother's  room,  looking  over  a  little 
picture-book.  Hollo  ran  laughing  up  to  her, 
and  said, 

"  What  have  you  got,  Lucy  ?  " 

"  One  of  your  little  picture-books.  Will 
you  lend  it  to  me  to  carry  home  ?  " 

Hollo  said  he  would,  and  then  they  began 
to  talk  about  what  they  should  do.  It 
rained  very  fast,  and  they  could  not  go  out 
of  doors ;  and,  after  proposing  several  things, 
which,  however,  neither  of  them  seemed  to 


OR,  LUCY'S  VISIT.  87 

like,  they  turned  to  Hollo's  mother,  and 
asked  her  what  they  had  better  do. 

"  I  always  find,"  said  his  mother,  "  that 
when  I  am  disappointed  of  any  pleasure, 
it  is  best  not  to  try  to  find  any  other  pleas 
ure  in  its  place,  but  to  turn  to  duty." 

The  children  did  not  understand  this 
very  well,  and  they  were  silent. 

"  What  I  mean,"  she  continued,  "  is  this : 
When  we  have  just  been  disappointed  of 
any  pleasure  which  we  had  set  our  hearts 
upon,  it  is  very  difficult  to  find  any  thing 
else  that  we  can  have  in  its  place,  that  will 
look  as  pleasant  as  the  one  we  had  lost. 
You  see  that  you  are  not  satisfied  with  any 
thing  you  propose  to  one  another.  Now,  I 
find  that  the  best  way,  in  such  cases,  is  to 
give  up  pleasure  altogether,  and  turn  to 
some  duty  ;  and  after  performing  the  duty 
a  short  time,  peace  and  satisfaction  return 
to  the  mind  again,  and  we  get  over  the 
effects  of  the  disappointment  in  the  quick 
est  and  pleasantest  way." 

Rollo  and  Lucy  looked  at  one  another 
rather  soberly.  They  did  not  seem  to  know 
what  to  say. 


88     THE  HALO  ROUND  THE  MOON; 

"I  presume,  however,  you  will  not  do 
this,"  continued  his  mother. 

"Why?"  saidRollo. 

"Because,"  said  his  mother,  "it  requires 
a  good  deal  of  resolution,  at  first,  to  turn  to- 
duty  when  you  have  just  been  setting  your 
heart  on  pleasure." 

'-  O,  we  have  got  resolution  enough,"  said 
Hollo. 

"  What  duty  do  you  think  we  had  better 
do  ?  "  asked  Lucy. 

"  If  I  were  you,"  replied  Hollo's  mother, 
•'  T  should  first  of  all  sit  down  and  have  a 
good  reading  lesson." 

Hollo  and  Lucy  hesitated  a  little,  but 
they  concluded  to  take  their  mother's  ad 
vice  at  last,  and  went  to  Hollo's  little 
library,  and  chose  a  book,  and  then  went 
down  to  the  back  entry,  and  sat  down 
there,  on  a  long  cricket,  and  began  to 
read. 

At  first,  it  was  rather  hard  to  do  it,  for  it 
did  not  look  very  pleasant  to  either  of  them 
to  sit  down  and  read,  just  at  the  time 
when  they  expected  to  be  gathering  blue 
berries  on  the  mountain.  Hollo  said,  when 


OR,  LUCY'S  VISIT.  89 

they  were  opening  the  book  and  finding  the 
place,  that,  if  they  had  gone,  they  should, 
by  that  time,  have  just  about  arrived  at  the 
foot  of  the  mountain. 

"  Yes,"  said  Lucy,  "  but  we  must  not 
think  of  that  now.  Besides,  just  see  how 
it  rains.  It  would  be  a  fine  time  now  to  go 
up  a  mountain,  wouldn't  it  ?  " 

Rollo  looked  out  of  the  open  door,  and 
saw  the  rain  pouring  down  into  the  yard, 
and  felt  again  ashamed  to  recollect  how  he 
had  insisted  that  it  was  not  going  to  rain. 

Lucy  said  it  was  beautiful  to  see  it  pour- 
ing  down  so  fast.  "Look,"  said  she  ;  "how 
it  streams  down  from  the  spout  at  the  cor 
ner  of  the  barn  !  " 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "and  see  that  little 
pond  out  by  the  garden  gate.  How  it  is 
all  full  of  little  bubbles  !  It  will  be  a  beau 
tiful  pond  for  me  to  sail  boats  in,  when  the 
rain  is  over.  I  can  make  paper-boats  and 
pea-boats  ! " 

"Pea-boats?"  said  Lucy;  "what  are 
pea-boats?  " 

"  O  !  they  are  beautiful  little  boats,"  said 
he.  "  Jonas  showed  me  how  to  make  them, 


90    THE  HALO  BOUND  THE  MOON; 

We  take  a  pea-pod,  a  good  large  full  pea- 
pod,  and  shave  off  the  top  from  one  end  to 
the  other,  and  then  take  out  the  peas,  and 
it  makes  a  beautiful  little  boat.  I  Avish  we 
had  some  ;  I  could  show  you." 

"  Let  us  make  some  when  we  have  done 
reading,  and  sail  them.  Only  that  pond 
will  all  go  away  when  the  rain  is  over." 

"O  no,"  said  Hollo,  "I  will  put  some 
ground  all  around  it,  and  then  the  water 
cannot  run  away." 

"  Yes,  but  it  will  soak  down  into  the 
ground." 

"Will  it?"  said  Hollo.  "Well,  we  can 
sail  our  boats  on  it  a  little  while  before  it 
is  gone." 

"  But  it  is  so  wet,"  said  Lucy,  "  we  can 
not  go  out  to  get  any  pea-pods." 

"I  did  not  think  of  that,"  said  Rollo. 
"  Perhaps  Jonas  could  get  some  for  us,  with 
an  umbrella." 

"/  could  go  with  an  umbrella,"  said 
Lucy,  "  just  as  well  as  not." 

The  children  saw  an  umbrella  behind 
the  door,  and  they  thought  they  would  go 
both  together,  and  they  actually  laid  down 


on,  LUCY'S  VISIT.  91 

their  book,  spread  the  umbrella,  and  went 
to  the  door.  It  then  occurred  to  them  that 
it  would  not  be  quite  right  to  go  out,  with 
out  leave  ;  so  Rollo  went  to  ask  his  mother. 

His  mother  said  it  Avas  not  suitable  for 
young  ladies  to  go  out  in  the  rain,  as  their 
shoes,  and  their  dress  generally,  were  thin, 
and  could  not  bear  to  be  exposed  to  wet ; 
but  she  said  that  Rollo  himself  might  take 
off  his  shoes  and  stockings,  and  go  out  alone, 
when  the  rain  held  up. 

"  But,  mother,"  said  he,  "  why  cannot  I 
go  out  now,  with  the  umbrella?  " 

"  Because,"  she  replied,  "  when  it  rains 
fast,  some  of  the  water  spatters  through  the 
umbrella,  and  some  will  be  driven  against 
jon  by  the  wind." 

"  Well,  I  will  wait,  and  as  soon  as  it  rains 
but  little,  I  will  go  out.  But  must  I  take 
off  my  shoes  and  stockings?" 

"  Yes,"  said  his  mother,  "  or  else  you  will 
get  them  wet  and  muddy.  And  before  you 
go,  you  must  get  a  dipper  of  water  ready  in 
the  shed,  to  pour  on  your  feet,  and  wash 
them,  when  you  get  back ;  and  then  wait  till 
they  are  entirely  dry,  before  you  put  on 


92    THE  HALO  ROUND  THE  MOON; 

your  shoes  and  stockings  again.  If  you 
want  the  pea-pods  enough  to  take  all  that 
trouble,  you  may  go  for  them." 

Rollo  said  he  did  want  them  enough  for 
that,  and  lie  then  went  back  and  told  Lucy 
what  his  mother  had  said,  and  they  con 
cluded  to  read  until  the  rain  should  cease, 
and  that  then  Rollo  should  go  out  into  the 
garden. 

They  began  to  read ;  but  their  minds  were 
so  much  upon  the  pea-pod  boats,  that  the 
story  did  not  interest  them  very  much.  Be 
sides,  children  cannot  read  very  well  aloud, 
to  one  another;  for  if  they  succeed  in  call 
ing  all  the  words  right,  they  do  not  generally 
give  the  stops  and  the  emphasis,  and  the 
proper  tones  of  voice,  so  as  to  make  the 
story  interesting  to  those  that  hear.  Some 
boys  and  girls  are  vain  enough  to  think  that 
they  can  read  very  well,  just  because  they 
can  call  all  the  words  without  stopping  to 
spell  them ;  but  this  is  very  far  from  being 
enough  to  make  a  good  reader. 

Rollo  read  a  little  way ;  and  then  Lucy  read 
a  little  way ;  but  they  were  not  much  inter- 
ested,  and  thinking  that  the  difficulty  might 


OR,  LUCY'S  VISIT.  93 

be  in  the  book,  they  got  another,  but  with 
no  better  success.  At  last  Rollo  said  they 
would  go  and  get  their  mother  to  read  to 
them.  So  they  went  together  to  her  room, 
and  Rollo  said  that  they  could  not  get  along 
very  well  in  reading  themselves,  and  asked 
her  if  she  would  not  be  good  enough  to  read 
to  them. 

"  Why,  what  is  the  difficulty^?  "  said  she. 

"  O,  I  do  not  know,  exactly :  the  story  is 
not  very  interesting,  and  then  we  cannot 
read  very  well." 

"  In  what  respect  will  it  be  better  for  me 
to  read  to  you?"  she  asked. 

"  Why,  mother,  you  can  choose  us  a  pret 
tier  story ;  and  then  we  should  understand 
it  better  if  you  read  it." 

"  I  suppose  you  would ;  but  I  see  you  have 
made  a  great  mistake." 

"  What  mistake  ?  "  said  both  the  children 
at  once. 

»  Why  is  it  that  you  are  going  to  read  at 
all  ?  " 

"  Wh}-,  you  advised  us  to,  mother." 

"  Did  I  advise  you  to  do  it  as  a  duty  or  as 
a  pleasure?  " 


94    THE  HALO  ROUND  THE  MOON; 

"  As  a  duty,  mother ;  I  recollect  now,'5 
said  Rollo. 

"Yes,  well,  now  the  mistake  you  have 
made  is,  that  you  are  looking  upon  it  only 
as  a  pleasure,  and  instead  of  doing  it  faith 
fully,  in  such  a  way  as  will  make  it  most 
useful  to  you,  you  are  forgetting  that  alto 
gether,  and  only  intent  upon  having  it  in 
teresting  and  pleasant.  Is  it  not  so  ?  " 

"Why-  —yes,"  said  Rollo,  hesitating, 
and  looking  down ;  and  then  turning  round 
to  Lucy,  he  said,  "  I  suppose  we  had  better 
go  and  read  the  story  ourselves." 

"  Do  just  as  you  please,"  said  his  mother  ; 
"  I  have  not  commanded  you  to  read,  but 
only  recommended  it;  and  that  not  as  a 
way  of  interesting  you,  but  as  a  way  of 
spending  an  hour  usefully  as  a  preparation 
for  an  hour  of  enjoyment  afterwards.  You 
can  do  as  you  please,  however ;  but  if  you 
attempt  to  read  at. all,  I  advise  you  to  do  it 
not  as  play  but  as  a  lesson.'' 

"  Well,  come,  Rollo,"  s,aid  Lucy,  "  let  us 
go." 

So  the  children  ran  back  to  the  entry, 
and  sat  down  to  their  story,  taking  pains  to 


OR,  LUCY'S  VISIT.  95 

read  carefully  as  if  their  object  was  to  learn 
to  read ;  and  though  they  did  not  expect  it, 
they  did,  in  fact,  have  a  very  pleasant  time. 
The  rest  of  the  adventures  of  Hollo  and 
Lucy,  during  this  day,  must  be  reserved  foi 
another  story. 


THE  FBESHET. 


THE   FRESHET. 


THE  story  that  Rollo  and  his  cousin  Lucy 
began  to  read  together,  in  the  back  entry, 
looking  out  towards  the  garden,  that  rainy 
day  when  they  were  disappointed  of  the 
excursion  up  the  mountain,  commenced  as 
follows :  — 


MARIA  AND  THE  CARAVAN. 

Maria  'Wilton  lives  in  the  pretty  white  house 
which  stands  just  at  the  entrance  of  the  wood,  where 
the  children  find. the  blackberries  so  thick  in  the 
berrying  season.  It  is  not  as  large  or  elegant  a 
house  as  many  that  we  pass  on  a  walk  through  the 
village ;  but  yet,  with  its  neatly-painted  front,  and 
blooming  little  garden,  its  appearance  is  quite  as 
inviting  as  that  of  many  a  more  splendid  mansion. 
Certain  it  is,  at  least,  that  there  is  not  a  more  pleas 
ant  or  happy  dwelling  in  the  town.  Neatness  and 
good  order  regulate  all  the  arrangements  of  the 
family,  and  where  such  is  the  case,  it  is  almost  need- 


100 


THE   FUESHET. 


less  to  add  that  peace  and  harmony  characterize  the 
intercourse  of  the  inmates.  It  is  seldom  that  confu 
sion  or  uproar,  or  disputes  or  contentions,  are  known 
among  the  Wiltons. 

But  it  was  of  Maria  that  I  was  intending  to  speak 
more  particularly,  —  her  kind,  and  yielding,  and  con 
ciliating  manners  towards  her  brothers  and  sisters. 
Maria  was  not  the  oldest  of  the  children.  She  was 
not  quite  nine,  and  her  sister  Harriet  was  as  much 
as  eleven,  and  her  brother  George  still  older.  And 
yet,  her  influence  did  more  to  maintain  peace  and 
good  feeling  in  the  family  group,  than  would  have 
been  believed  by  a  person  who  had  not  observed  her. 
In  every  case  where  only  her  own  wishes  or  inclina 
tions  were  concerned,  Maria  was  ready  to  give  up  to 
George  or  Harriet ;  because,  as  she  said,  they  were 
older  than  herself ;  and  again,  she  was  quite  as  ready 
to  yield  to  little  Susan  and  Willie,  because  they 
were  younger.  Her  brothers  and  sisters,  in  their 
turn,  were  far  less  apt  to  contend  for  any  privilege 
or  advantage,  than  they  would  have  been,  if  she  had 
shown  herself  more  tenacious  of  her  own  rights. 

Mr.  Wilton  used,  occasionally,  to  go  into  the  city, 
a  few  miles  distant,  upon  business.  He  usually 
went  in  a  chaise,  taking  one  of  the  children  with 
him.  The  excursion  was,  to  them,  a  very  pleasant 
one ;  and  all  anticipated,  with  a  great  deal  of  pleas 
ure,  their  respective  turns  to  ride  with  their  father. 
It  happened  that  the  day  when  it  fell  to  Maria's 
turn,  was  to  be  the  close  of  an  exhibition  of  animals, 
which  had  been  for  a  short  time  in  the  city.  Maria's 
eye  brightened  with  pleasure  as  her  father  mentioned 


THE   FRESHET.  101 

this  circumstance  at  the  dinner  tabl'e,  and"  inquired 
if  she  would  like  to  visit  the  caravan. 

"  O,  father !  "  exclaimed  George  eagerly,  as  he  laid 
down  his  knife  and  fork ;  "  a  caravan !  Mayn't  I 
go?" 

"  You  cannot  both  go,"  replied  his  father  ;  "  and  I 
believe  it  is  Maria's  turn  to  go  into  town  with  me." 

"  Well,"  said  George,  "  but  I  don't  believe  Maria 
would  care  anything  about  seeing  it ;  "  and  his  eye 
glanced  eagerly  from  his  father  to  Maria,  and  then 
from  Maria  to  his  father  again. 

"How  is  it,  Maria?"  said  Mr.  Wilton.  "Have 
you  no  wish  to  visit  the  caravan  ?  " 

Maria  did  not  answer  directly,  while  yet  her  coun 
tenance  showed  very  plainly  what  her  wishes  really 
were.  "  Is  there  an  elephant  there,  father  ?  "  she,  at 
length,  rather  hesitatingly  inquired. 

"  There  probably  is,"  replied  her  father. 

"  An  elephant !  "  repeated  George  with  something 
of  a  sneer;  "who  has  not  seen  an  elephant?  I 
would  not  give  a  farthing  to  go,  if  there  was  nothing 
better  than  an  elephant  to  be  seen." 

"  What  should  you  care  so  much  to  see  ?  "  inquired 
Mr.  Wilton. 

"  Why,  I  would  give  anything  to  see  a  leopard  or 
a  camel." 

"  A  leopard  or  a  camel ! "  repeated  his  father  in 
the  same  tone  in  which  George  had  made  his  rude 
speech.  "  I  am  sure  I  wouldn't  give  a  farthing  to  see 
either  a  camel  or  a  leopard." 

"  No,"  said  George,  "  because  you  have  seen  them 
both  ;  but  I  never  did." 


102  TKE   FRESHET. 

.';  Neither  has -Maria  seen  an  elephant,"  returned 
Mr.  Wilton  ;  "  so  what  is  the  difference  ?  " 

George  looked  a  little  mortified  at  the  overthrow 
of  his  argument.  But  still  his  eagerness  for  the 
gratification  was  not  to  be  repressed.  "  I  shouldn't 
think  a  girl  need  to  care  about  going  to  see  a  parcel 
of  wild  beasts,"  he  remarked  rather  petulantly,  as  he 
gave  his  chair  a  push,  upon  rising  from  the  table. 

"  O,  George,  George,"  expostulated  his  father,  "  I 
did  not  think  you  were  either  a  selfish  or  a  sullen 
boy." 

"  No,  father,  and  he  is  not,"  said  Maria,  approach 
ing  her  father,  and  taking  his  hand  ;  "  but  he  wants 
to  go  very  much,  and  I  do  not  care  so  much  about  it. 
So  he  may  go,  and  I  will  stay  at  home." 

"  You  are  a  good  girl,"  said  her  father ;  "  but  I 
shall  not  consent  to  any  such  injustice.  So  go  and 
get  ready  as  quick  as  possible." 

"  But,  father,  I  had  really  a  great  deal  rather  that 
George  should  go,"  insisted  Maria. 

"  But  I  cannot  think  that  George  would  really,  on 
the  whole,  prefer  to  take  your  place,"  said  Mr.  Wil 
ton,  turning  to  George. 

"  No,  sir,"  replied  George,  who,  restored  by  this 
time  to  a  sense  of  propriety  and  justice,  was  stand 
ing  ready  to  speak  for  himself.  "  No,  sir,  Maria  is 
very  kind ;  but  I  do  not  wish  to  take  her  place.  I 
am  very  sorry  indeed  that  I  said  anything  about  it. 
I  certainly  shall  not  consent  to  take  your  place, 
Maria,"  he  said,  perceiving  that  she  was  ready  to 
entreat  still  further. 


THE    FRESHET.  103 

"  O  !  but  I  do  wish  you  would,"  said  Maria.  But 
just  here  her  mother  interposed.  "  If  Maria  would 
really  prefer  to  give  up  her  place  to  her  brother," 
said  Mrs.  Wilton,  "  I  certainly  shall  like  the  arrange 
ment  very  much,  for  I  am  to  be  particularly  engaged 
this  afternoon;  and,  as  Harriet  is  to  be  absent,  I 
shall  be  very  glad  of  some  of  Maria's  assistance  in 
taking  care  of  the  baby." 

"  O !  well,"  said  Maria,  brightening  up,  "  then  I 
am  sure  I  will  not  go  ;  so  run,  George,  for  father  is 
almost  ready  to  start." 

Thus  the  matter  was  amicably  settled.  George 
went  with  his  father,  and  Maria  remained  at  home 
to  help  take  care  of  little  Willy. 

Maria  loved  her  little  brother  very  much,  and  she 
never  seemed  tired  of  taking  care  of  him,  even  when 
he  was  ever  so  fretful  or  restless.  She  would  leave 
her  play,  at  any  moment,  to  run  and  rock  the  baby, 
or  to  hold  him  in  her  lap ;  for,  even  if  she  felt  in 
clined,  at  any  time,  to  be  a  little  out  of  patience  for 
a  moment,  she  would  recollect  how  many  hours  she 
had  herself  been  nursed,  by  night  and  by  day,  and 
she  was  glad  of  an  opportunity  to  relieve  her  mother 
of  some  of  her  care  and  fatigue.  Her  cousin,  Ellen 
Western,  called  one  afternoon,  to  ask  her  to  accom 
pany  a  party  of  little  girls,  who  were  going  to  gather 
berries  in  the  wood  near  Maria's  house.  It  hap 
pened  that  Maria  had  been  left  with  the  care  of 
Willy,  just  as  her  cousin  called;  and  it  happened, 
too,  that  Willy  was  that  afternoon  unusually  fretful 
and  difficult  to  please.  If  Ma^ia  left  him  for  a 


104  THE   FRESHET. 

moment,  or  if  she  did  not  hold  him  exactly  in  the 
posture  which  suited  him,  or  if  she  had  not  precisely 
the  thing  ready  which  he  wanted  at  the  moment,  he 
would  act  just  as  all  babies  of  nine  or  ten  months 
sometimes  take  it  into  their  heads  to  act.  With  all 
her  patience  and  good  humor,  she  hardly  knew  how 
to  manage  him;  and  especially  after  having  been 
obliged  to  reject  so  agreeable  an  invitation  as  the 
one  her  cousin  brought,  she  found  her  task  a  little 
irksome. 

She  could  hardly  repress  an  occasional  expression 
of  impatience,  as  she  tried  in  vain  to  please  the 
wayward  little  fellow.  But  her  patience  and  good 
humor  were  very  soon  restored  ;  and,  as  she  reflected 
that  she  was  doing  her  mother  a  great  deal  of  good 
by  staying  at  home  with  Willy,  she  felt  quite  willing 
to  dismiss  all  thoughts  of  the  berrying  expedition. 
The  girls,  however,  did  not  forget  her.  It  was  pro 
posed  by  one  of  the  party,  when  Ellen  had  stated 
the  reason  why  Maria  could  not  join  them,  that  each 
should  contribute  some  portion  of  her  berries  to  be 
carried  to  her  on  their  way  home.  All  agreed  very 
readily  to  the  plan,  and  each  took  pains  to  select  the 
largest  and  the  ripest  of  her  berries  for  Maria's 
basket.  The  gratification  afforded  Maria  by  this 
little  token  of  kind  remembrance,  more  than  com 
pensated  for  the  self-denial  which  she  had  practised. 
It  is  almost  always  the  case  when  persons  cheerfully 
submit  to  any  privation,  for  the  sake  of  other  per 
sons,  or  because  it  is  duty,  that  they  are  amply 
.rewarded  for  it.  They  enjoy,  at  least,  the  con- 


THE   FRESHET.  105 

sciousness  of  doing  right,  which  is  one  of  the  very 
highest  sources  of  pleasure.  Maria  would,  at  any 
time,  have  been  satisfied  with  only  this  reward;  but 
it  very  often  happened,  very  unexpectedly,  that 
something  more  was  in  store  for  her.  This  was  the 
case  upon  the  time  when  she  gave  up  her  ride,  and 
her  visit  to  the  caravan  for  the  sake  of  her  brother. 
I  have  not  said  that  it  was  absolutely  Maria's  duty 
to  yield  to  her  brother,  in  this  case ;  perhaps  it 
would  have  been  perfectly  right  for  her  to  have 
maintained  her  own  claims ;  and  yet,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  she  felt  a  great  deal  happier  for  the 
sacrifice  she  had  made. 

But  we  were  going  to  speak  of  some  further  re 
ward  that  her  amiable  behavior,  in  this  instance, 
procured  her.  As  her  father  opened  a  package 
which  he  had  brought  on  his  return,  he  silently 
placed  in  her  hands  a  beautiful  copy  of  a  newly 
published  work,  upon  the  fly-leaf  of  which  she  found 
written,  —  "Maria  Wilton  —  a  reward  for  her  kind 
and  obliging  manners  towards  her  brothers  and 
sisters." 


SMALL   CRAFT. 

When  they  had  finished  the  story,  Lucy 
shut  the  book,  saying,  "Maria  was  a  good 
girl,  was  not  she,  Rol}o  ?  " 


THK   FI;I;SIII;T. 

fck  Yes,"  s;iid  Uollo,  "she  \v;i.s  an  excellent 
girl.  I  would  have  done  jus!,  so.  Would 
not  you,  Lucy  ?  " 

"I  ought  !o,  I  know,"  sjiid  Lucy,  -l  but 
perhaps  I  should  not." 

"  I  should,  I  am  sure,"  said  Ivollo. 

Lucy  was  a  polite  girl,  ;ind  she  did  not 
contradict  Rollo,  Ihou^li  she  r(;col|(-c,lcd  how 
much  selfishness  he  h;id  shown  (hat  morn 
ing;  ;md  it  did  not  seem  to  her  very  likely 
lh;i(  he  would  luive  heen  willing  to  miike 
;u iv  very  ^rcat  sa,ci-ilice  to  oblige  others. 

"My  father  says  that  we  cannot  tell  \vh;it 
we  should  do  until  we  are  tried,"  said  Lucy. 

lt  Well,  I  knmr  \  should  h;ive  heen  U'illiu^ 
to  st;iy  ;ii  home,  if  1  h;id  Ix-eu  Maria,"  re 
plied  luillo. 

kfc  l»n(,  oidy  think,  thai  would  he  prefer 
ring  another  person's  pleasure  rather  than 
ymir  own." 

"Well,  I  xhoH/i/  prefer  another  pj-rson's 
pleasure  ra.lher  <  han  my  own." 

Hollo  was  beginning  to  get  a.  lit  tie  excited 
and  vexed.  IVople  who  boast  of  excellences 
whieh  I  hey  do  not,  possess,  are  vury  apt  to  be 
unre:isoiial»le  and  angry  when  any  body 


TMK    FKI-.SIIKT.  107 


*eems  to  doubt  whether  their  boastings  arc 
l  rue.  lie  was  thus  going  on,  insisting  upon 
it  that  lie  should  have  acted  as  Maria  had 
doue,aud  was  just  saving  that  he  should  pre 
fer  auot  her  JXTSOU'S  pleasure  rather  than  his 
own,  when  Jonas  came  into  the  entry  from 
the  kitchen,  with  an  armful  of  wood,  which 
he  was  carrying  into  the  parlor. 

"When  is  it,  Hollo,"  said  Jonas,  -  that 
you  prefer  another  person's  pleasure  to  your 

own?" 

"Ahva\s,"  said  Kollo,  with  an  air  of  self- 
conceit  and  consequence. 

Jonas  smiled,  and  went  on  with  his  \\ood. 

It  is  always  better  for  bo\s  to  he  modest 
and  bumble-minded.  They  appear  ridicu 
lous  to  others  when  they  are  boasting  what 
tjrcat  things  (hey  can  do;  and  when  they 
boast  what  •  </<t,nl  things  they  do  they  arc  \cr\ 
likely  to  be  just  on  the  eve  of  doing  exactly 
the  opposite. 

In  a  moment  Jonas  came  hack  out  of 
the  parlor,  and  said,  as  he  passed  through, 


Goes  hut  little  \\avs;  " 

a  short  piece  of  versification  which  all   bo\s 
and  girls  would  do  well  to  remember. 


108  THE   FRESHET. 

Now  it  happened  that,  all  this  time,  Rol 
lo's  mother  was  sitting  in  a  little  bed-room, 
which  had  a  door  opening  into  the  entry 
where  Lucy  and  Rollo  had  been  reading, 
and  she  heard  all  the  conversation.  She 
knew  that  though  Rollo  was  generally  a 
good  boy,  and  was  willing  to  know  his  faults, 
and  often  endeavored  to  correct  them,  still 
that  he  was,  like  all  other  boys,  prone  to 
selfishness  and  to  vanity,  and  she  thought 
that  she  must  take  some  way  to  show  him 
clearly  what  the  truth  really  was,  about  his 
disinterestedness. 

In  a  few  minutes,  therefore,  she  went  out 
of  the  room,  and  took  from  the  store  closet 
an  apple  and  a  pear.  They  were  both  good, 
but  the  pear  was  particularly  fine.  It  was 
large,  mellow,  and  juicy.  She  then  went 
back  to  her  seat,  and  called,  "  Rollo." 

Rollo  came  running  to  her. 

"Here,"  said  she,  "is  an  apple  and  a  pear 
for  you." 

"  Is  one  for  me  and  one  for  Lucy  ?  "  said 
he. 

"  That  is  just  as  you  please.  I  give  them 
both  to  you.  You  may  do  what  you  choose 
with  them." 


THE   FRESHET.  109 

Hollo  took  the  fruit,  much  pleased,  and 
walked  slowly  back,  hesitating  what  to  do. 
He  thought  he  must  certainly  give  one  to 
Lucy,  and  as  he  had  just  been  boasting  that 
he  preferred  another's  pleasure  to  his  OAVII^ 
he  was  ashamed  to  offer  her  the  apple  ;  and 
yet  he  wanted  the  pear  very  much  himself. 

If  he  had  had  a  little  more  time,  he  would 
have  hit  upon  a  plan  which  would  have  re 
moved  all  the  difficulty  at  once,  by  dividing 
both  the  apple  and  the  pear,  and  giving  to 
Lucy  half  of  each.  But  he  did  not  think  of 
this.  In  fact,  his  mother  knew  that,  as  he 
was  going  directly  back  to  Lucy,  he  would 
not  have  much  time  to  think,  but  must  act 
according  to  the  spontaneous  impulse  of  his 
heart. 

But,  though  he  did  not  think  of  dividing 
the  apple  and  the  pear,  he  happened  to  hit 
upon  a  plan,  which  occurred  to  him  just  as 
he  was  going  back  into  the  entry,  that  he 
thought  would  do. 

He  held  the  fruit  behind  him ;  the  apple 
in  one  hand,  and  the  pear  in  the  other. 
Lucy  saw  him  coming,  and  said, 

"  What  have  you  got,  Hollo  ?  " 


110  THE   FRESHET. 

"Which  will  you  have,  right  hand  or 
left  ?  "  said  he  in  reply. 

"Right." 

Rollo  held  forward  his  right  hand,  and, 
lo  !  it  was  the  pear.  But  he  could  not  bear 
to  part  with  it,  and  he  brought  forward  the 
other,  and  said, 

"  No,  you  may  have  the  apple." 

"No,"  said  Lucy,  "the  pear  is  fairly  mine; 
you  asked  me  which  I  would  have,  and  I 
said  the  right." 

"But  I  want  the  pear,"  said  Rollo;  "you 
may  have  the  apple.  Mother  gave  them 
both  to  me." 

"  I  want  the  pear,  too,"  said  Lucy,  "  it  is 
mine,  and  you  must  give  it  to  me." 

Just  then  a  voice  called  from  the  bed 
room, 

"  Children  ! " 

"What,  mother?"  said  Rollo. 

"  I  want  you  both  to  come  here." 

Rollo  and  Lucy  would  both  have  been 
ashamed  of  their  contention,  were  it  not 
that  the  pear  looked  so  very  rich  and  temp 
ting,  that  they  were  both  very  eager  to 
have  it. 


THE  FRESHET.  Ill 

"What  is  the  difficulty?"  said  Hollo's 
mother,  as  soon  as  they  stood  before  her. 

"  Why,  Lucy  wants  the  pear,"  said  Rollo, 
"  and  you  gave  them  both  to  me,  and  said  I 
might  do  as  I  pleased  with  them.  I  am 
willing  to  give  her  the  apple." 

"  Yes,  but  he  offered  me  my  choice,"  said 
Lucy,  "  right  hand  or  left,  and  I  chose  the 
right,  and  now  he  ought  to  give  it  to  me." 

"  And  are  you  willing  that  I  should  decide 
it  ?  "  said  the  lady. 

"Yes,  mother,"  and  "Yes,  aunt,"  said 
Rollo  and  Lucy  together. 

"You  have  both  done  wrong;  not  very 
wrong,  but  a  little  wrong ;  and  I  think  nei 
ther  ought  to  have  the  whole  of  the  pear. 
So  I  shall  divide  the  pear  and  the  apple 
both  between  you ;  and  I  will  tell  you  how 
you  have  done  wrong. 

"You,  Rollo,  by  asking  her  which  she 
would  have,  implied  that  you  would  leave 
it  to  chance  to  decide,  and  that  you  would 
let  her  have  her  fair  chance.  Then  you 
ought  to  have  submitted  to  the  result.  If 
she  had  chosen  the  left  hand,  she  ought  to 
have  been  content.  If  she  had  got  the  apple, 


112  THE   FRESHET. 

you  would  have  had  the  credit  of  giving  her 
an  equal  chance  with  you,  and  she  ought, 
therefore,  to  have  had  the  full  benefit  of  the 
chance. 

"And  then  you,  Lucy,  did  wrong;  for, 
although  Rollo  asked  you  to  choose,  he  did 
not  actually  promise  you  your  choice,  and, 
as  he  was  under  no  obligation  to  give  you 
either,  you  ought  not  to  have  insisted  upon 
his  fulfilling  his  implied  promise.  Is  it  not 
so?" 

The  children  both  saw  and  admitted  that 
it  was. 

"  The  best  way,  I  think,"  she  continued, 
"would  have  been  for  you,  Rollo,  to  have 
given  the  pear  to  Lucy,  as  she  was  your  vis 
itor,  and  a  young  lady,  too.  Then  she  would 
have  given  you  half  in  eating  it.  However, 
you  were  not  very  much  in  the  wrong, 
either  of  you.  It  was  a  sort  of  a  doubtful 
case.  But  I  hope  you  see  from  it,  Rollo, 
what  I  wanted  to  teach  you,  that  you  are 
no  more  inclined  to  prefer  other  persons' 
pleasure  to  your  own,  than  other  children 
are.  Remember  Jonas's  couplet  hereafter. 
I  think  it  is  a  very  good  one.  Now  go  and 


THE    FRESHET.  113 

get  a  knife,  and  cut  the  fruit ;  and  see,  it 
does  not  rain  but  little;  you  can  go  and  get 
your  pea-pods  now." 

Away  went  the  children  out  into  the 
kitchen  after  a  knife.  Rollo  wanted  to  cut 
the  apple  and  pear  himself,  and  Lucy  made 
no  objection  ;  and  we  must  do  him  the  justice 
to  say  that  he  gave  rather  the  largest  half  of 
each  to  Lucy.  Then  they  went  out  into  the 
shed,  Rollo  taking  with  him  a  dipper  of  water 
to  wash  his  feet  when  he  came  back  from  the 
garden.  Rollo  then  took  off  his  shoes,  and 
gave  Lucy  his  share  of  the  fruit,  to  keep  for 
him,  and  then  sallied  forth  into  the  yard, 
holding  the  umbrella  over  his  head,  as  a  few 
drops  of  rain  were  still  falling. 

He  waded  into  the  little  pond  at  the  gar 
den  gate,  and  then  turned  round  to  look  at 
Lucy  and  laugh.  He  began,  too,  to  caper 
about  in  the  water,  but  Lucy  told  him  to 
take  care,  or  he  would  fall  down,  and  they, 
could  not  wash  his  clothes,  as  they  could  his 
feet,  with  their  dipper  of  water. 

So  he  went  carefully  forward  till  he  came 
to  the  peas,  and  gathered   as  many  as  he 
wanted,  and  then  returned. 
8 


114  THE  FRESHET. 

As  he  was  coming  back,  he  saw  Jonas  in 
the  barn.  Jonas  called  out  to  him  to  ask 
what  he  had  got. 

"  I  have  been  to  get  some  pea-pods,"  said 
he,  "  to  make  boats  with." 

"  Where  are  you  going  to  sail  them  ?  " 
said  Jonas. 

"  O,  in  this  little  pond,  when  it  is  done 
raining." 

"  But  you  had  better  have  a  little  pond 
now,  in  the  shed." 

"  How  can  we  ?  "  said  Hollo. 

"  You  might  have  it  in  a  milk-pan." 

"  So  we  can.  Could  you  come  and  get  it 
for  us?" 

"  Yes,  in  a  few  minutes  — by  the  time  you 
get  your  boats  made." 

Hollo  and  Lucy  were  much  pleased  with 
this,  and  they  sat  down,  one  on  each  side  of 
the  milk-pan  pond,  and  sailed  their  boats  a 
'long  time.  He  cut  small  pieces  of  the  ap 
ple  and  of  the  pear  for  cargo,  and  Rollo  put 
in  the  stem  of  the  pear  for  the  captain  of  his 
boat.  Each  one  was  good  humored  and 
obliging,  and  the  time  passed  away  very 
pleasantly,  until  it  was  near  dinner-time. 


THE   FRESHET.  115 

When  they  came  in  to  dinner,  they  observed 
that  it  was  raining  again  very  fast. 


THE  PRINCIPLES   OF   ORDER. 

"  Father,"  said  Rollo,  at  the  dinner  table, 
"do  you  think  it  will  rain  all  the  after 
noon?" 

"  It  looks  like  it,"  replied  his  father, 
"  but  why  ?  Do  you  not  enjoy  yourselves 
in  the  house  ?  " 

"  O,  yes,  sir,"  said  Rollo,  "  we  have  had  a 
fine  time  this  morning ;  but  Lucy  and  I 
thought  that,  if  it  did  not  rain  this  after 
noon,  we  might  go  out  in  the  garden  a 
little." 

"  It  may  clear  up  towards  night ;  but,  if 
it  does,  I  think  it  would  be  better  to  go 
down  to  the  brook  and  see  the  freshet,  than 
to  go  into  the  garden." 

"The  freshet?  Will  there  be  a  freshet, 
do  you  think?" 

"  Yes,  if  it  rains  this  afternoon  as  fast  as  it 


116  THE   FRESHET. 

does  now,  I  think  the  brook  will  be  quite 
high  towards  night." 

Hollo  was  much  pleased  to  hear  this.  He 
told  Lucy,  after  dinner,  that  the  brook 
looked  magnificently  in  a  freshet ;  that  the 
banks  were  brimming  full,  and  the  water 
poured  along  in  a  great  torrent,  foaming 
and  dashing  against  the  logs  and  rocks. 

"  Then,  besides,  Lucy,"  said  he,  "  we  can 
carry  down  our  little  boats  and  set  them  a 
sailing.  How  they  wDl  whirl  and  plunge 
along  down  the  stream  !  " 

Lucy  liked  the  idea  of  seeing  the  freshet, 
too,  very  much ;  though  she  said  she  was 
afraid  it  would  be  too  wet  for  her  to  go. 
Hollo  told  her  never  to  fear,  for  his  father 
would  contrive  some  way  to  get  her  down 
there  safely,  and  they  both  went  to  the  back 
entry  door  again,  looking  out,  and  wishing 
now  that  it  would  rain  faster  and  faster,  as 
they  did  before  dinner  that  it  would  cease 
to  rain. 

"But,"  said  Lucy,  "what  if  it  should  not 
stop  raining  at  all,  to-night  ?  " 

"  O,  it  will,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  know  it  will. 
Besides,  if  it  should  not,  we  can  go  down 


THE   FRESHET.  117 

to-morrow  morning,  you  know,  and  then 
there  will  be  a  bigger  freshet.  O,  how  full 
the  brook  will  be  by  to-morrow  morning  !  " 

And  Rollo  clapped  his  hands,  and  capered 
with  delight. 

"  Yes,"  said  Lucy  soberly,  "  but  I  must 
go  home  to-night." 

"  Must  you  ?  "  said  Rollo.  "  So  you  must. 
I  did  not  think  of  that." 

"But  I  think,"  continued  he,  "that  it 
will  certainly  clear  up  to-night.  I  will  go 
and  ask  father  if  he  does  not  think  so  too." 

They  both  went  together  back  into  the 
parlor  to  ask  the  question. 

"I  cannot  tell,  my  children,  whether  it 
will  or  not.  I  see  no  indications,  one  way 
or  the  other.  I  think  you  had  better  forget 
all  about  it,  and  go  to  doing  something 
else ;  for  if  you  spend  all  the  afternoon  in 
watching  the  sky,  and  trying  to  guess 
whether  it  will  clear  up  or  not,  you  cannot 
enjoy  yourselves,  and  may  be  sadly  disap 
pointed  at  last." 

"Why,  we  cannot  help  thinking  of  it, 
father." 

"You  cannot,  if  you  stand  there  at  the 


118  THE   FKESHET. 

back  door,  doing  nothing  else ;  but,  if  you 
engage  in  some  other  employment,  you  will 
soon  forget  all  about  it." 

"  What  do  you  think  we  had  better  do  ?  * 
said  Lucy. 

"I  think  you  had  better  go  up  and  put 
your  room  and  your  desk  all  in  order,  Hollo  ; 
Lucy  can  help  you." 

"  But,  father,  I  have  put  it  in  order  a  great 
many  times,  and  it  always  gets  out  of  order 
again  very  soon,  and  I  cannot  keep  it  neat." 

"That  is  partly  because  you  do  not  put  it 
in  order  right.  You  do  not  understand  the 
principles  of  order." 

"  What  are  the  principles  of  order?"  said 
Lucy. 

"  There  are  a  good  many.  I  will  tell  you 
some  of  them,  and  then  you  may  go  and  ap 
ply  them  in  arranging  Rollo's  things. 

"  One  principle  is  to  have  the  things  that 
are  most  frequently  used  in  the  most  acces 
sible  place,  so  that  they  can  be  taken  out 
and  returned  to  their  proper  places  easily. 

"  Anether  good  principle  for  you  is  to  dis 
tinguish  between  the  things  which  you  wish 
to  use  and  those  you  only  wish  to  preserve. 


THE   FRESHET.  119 

The  former  ought  to  be  in  sight,  and  near 
at  hand.  The  latter  may  be  packed  away 
more  out  of  view. 

"Another  principle  is  to  avoid  having 
your  desk  and  room  encumbered  with 
things  of  little  or  no  value,  as  stones  you 
have  picked  up,  and  papers,  and  sticks. 
The  place  to  keep  such  things  is  in  the  barn 
or  shed,  not  in  your  private  room. 

"  Then  you  must  arrange  your  things 
systematically,  putting  things  of  the  same 
nature  together.  Once  I  looked  into  your 
desk,  after  you  had  put  it  in  order,  and  I 
found  that,  in  the  back  side  of  it,  you  had 
piled  up  books,  and  white  paper,  and  pic 
tures,  and  a  slate,  and  a  pocket-book  or  two, 
all  together.  You  thought  they  were  in 
order,  because  they  were  in  a  pile.  Now, 
they  ought  to  have  been  separated  and  ar 
ranged;  all  the  white  paper  by  itself  in 
front,  where  you  can  easily  get  it  to  use ; 
the  pictures  all  by  themselves  in  a  port 
folio  ;  and  the  books  should  be  arranged, 
not  in  a  pile,  but  in  a  row,  on  their  edges, 
so  that  you  can  get  out  any  one  without 
disturbing  the  others.  Those  are  some  of 
the  principles  of  order." 


120  THE   FKESHET. 

"Well,  come,  Rollo,"  said  Lucy.  "  Let  us 
go  and  see  your  things,  and  try  to  put  them 
in  order  light." 

Rollo  went ;  but,  as  he  left  the  room,  he 
turned  around  to  ask  his  father  if  he  would 
not  come  with  them,  and  just  show  them  a 
little  about  it.  His  father  said  he  could 
not  come  very  well  then ;  but  if  they  would 
try  and  do  as  well  as  they  could,  he  would 
come  and  look  over  their  work,  after  it  was 
done,  and  tell  them  whether  it  was  right  or 
not. 

Rollo  and  Lucy  went  up  into  Rollo's 
room;  and,  true  enough,  they  found  not  a 
little  confusion  there.  But  they  went  to 
work,  and  soon  became  very  much  inter 
ested  in  their  employment.  A  great  many 
of  the  things  were  new  to  Lucy ;  and,  as 
they  went  on  arranging  them,  they  often 
stopped  to  talk  and  play.  In  this  way  sev 
eral  hours  passed  along  very  pleasantly ; 
and  when,  at  last,  they  had  got  them  nearly 
arranged,  Rollo  went  to  the  window  to 
throw  out  some  old  stones  that  he  concluded 
not  to  keep  any  longer,  when  he  exclaimed 
aloud, 

"  O,  Lucy,  Lucy,  come  here  quick." 


THE    FRESHET. 


121 


Lucy  ran.  Hollo  pointed  out  to  the  west 
ern  horizon,  and  said,  "  See  there." 

There  was  a  broad  band  of  bright,  golden 
sky  all  along  the  western  horizon  —  clear 
and  beautiful,  and  extending  each  way  as 
far  as  they  could  see.  The  dark  clouds 
overhead  reached  down  to  the  edge  of  this 
clear  sky,  where  they  hung  in  a  fringe  of 
gold,  and  the  dazzling  rays  of  the  sun  were 
just  peeping  under  it.  The  rain  had  ceased. 


122  THE   FRESHET. 

Rollo  and  Lucy  gazed  at  it  a  moment, 
and  then  ran  down  stairs  as  fast  as  they 
could  go,  calling  out, 

"It  is  clearing  away !  It  is  clearing 
away !  Father,  it  is  clearing  away.  We 
can  go  and  see  the  freshet." 


CLEARING  UP. 

They  went  out  upon  the  steps  to  look  at 
the  sky.  A  few  drops  of  rain  were  still 
falling,  but  the  clouds  appeared  to  be  break 
ing  in  several  places,  and  the  tract  of  golden 
sky  in  the  west  was  rising  and  extending. 
The  air  was  calm,  and  the  golden  rays  of 
the  sun  shone  upon  the  fields  and  trees,  and 
upon  the  glittering  drops  that  hung  from 
the  leaves  and  branches.  Rollo  and  Lucy 
both  said  it  was  beautiful. 

They  went  in  and  urged  their  father  to 
go  with  them  down  to  the  brook  to  see  the 

o 

freshet;  but  he  said  they  must  wait  till 
after  tea.  "  It  is  too  wet  to  go  now,"  said 
he. 

"But,    father,"   said    Rollo,    "I   do   not 


THE   FRESHET.  123 

think  it  will  be  any  better  after  tea.  The 
ground  cannot  dry  in  half  an  hour." 

"  No,"  said  his  father,  "  but  the  water 
will  run  off  of  the  paths  a  great  deal,  so  that 
we  can  get  along  much  better." 

"  Well,  but  then  it  will  run  off  from  the 
brook  a  great  deal,  too,  and  the  freshet  will 
not  be  so  high." 

"  It  is  a  little  different  with  the  brook," 
his  father  replied,  "for  that  is  very  long, 
and  the  water  comes  a  great  way,  from 
among  the  hills.  Now,  while  we  are  taking 
tea,  the  water  will  be  running  into  the  brook 
back  among  the  hills,  faster  than  it  will  run 
away  here,  so  that  it  will  grow  higher  and 
higher  for  some  hours." 

Hollo  had  no  more  to  say,  but  he  was 
impatient  to  go.  He  and  Lucy  went  out 
and  stood  on  the  steps  again.  The  clouds 
were  breaking  up  and  flying  away  in  all 
directions,  and  large  patches  of  clear  blue 
sky  appeared  everywhere,  giving  promise  of 
a  beautiful  evening. 

"  Hark !  "  said  Rollo ;  "  what  is  that  ?  " 

Lucy  listened.  It  was  a  sort  of  roaring 
sound  down  in  the  woods.  Rollo  at  first 
thought  it  was  a  bear  growling. 


124  THE   FRESHET. 

"  Do  you  think  it  is  a  bear  ?  "  said  he  to 
Lucy,  with  a  look  of  some  concern. 

"  A  bear  !  —  no,"  said  Lucy,  laughing ; 
"  that  is  not  the  way  a  bear  growls%  It  is 
the  freshet." 

"  The  freshet !  "  said  Hollo. 

"  Yes ;  it  is  the  water  roaring  along  the 
brook." 

Hollo  listened,  and  he  immediately  per 
ceived  that  it  was  the  sound  of  water,  and 
he  jumped  and  capered  with  delight,  at 
thinking  how  fine  a  sight  it  must  be. 

At  the  tea-table,  Rollo's  father  explained 
the  plan  he  had  formed  for  their  going.  He 
said  it  was  rather  a  difficult  thing  to  go  and 
see  a  freshet  without  getting  wet  —  espe 
cially  for  a  girl.  He  and  Rollo,  he  said, 
could  put  on  their  good  thick  boots,  but 
Lucy  had  none  suitable  for  such  a  walk,  as 
it  would  probably  be  very  wet  and  muddy 
in  some  places, 

"  What  shall  we  do  then  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  I  believe  I  shall  let  Jonas  go  down,  and 
draw  Lucy  in  his  wagon,"  said  his  father. 
"  How  should  you  like  that,  Lucy  ?  " 

Lucy  said  she  would  like  it  very  well, 


THE  FRESHET.  125 

and  after  tea  they  went  out  to  the  garden- 
yard  door,  where  they  found  Jonas  with  his 
wagon  all  ready.  This  wagon  was  one  which 
Jonas  had  made  to  draw  Rollo  upon.  It  was 
plain  and  simple,  but  strong  and  convenient, 
and  perfectly  safe.  They  helped  Lucy  into 
it,  and  she  sat  down  on  the  little  seat.  Rollo, 
with  his  boots  on,  took  hold  behind  to  push, 
and  Jonas  drew.  Rollo's  father  walked  be 
hind,  and  thus  they  set  off  to  view  the 
freshet. 

They  moved  along  carefully  through  the 
yard,  and  then  turned  by  the  gate,  and 
went  into  the  field.  The  path  led  them  by 
the  garden  fence  for  some  distance,  and 
they  went  along  very  pleasantly  for  a  time, 
until  at  length  they  came  to  a  large  pool  of 
water  covering  the  whole  path.  There  were 
high  banks  on  each  side,  so  that  the  wagon 
could  not  turn  out. 

"What  shall  we  do  now?"  said  Rollo. 

"  I  can  go  right  through  it,"  said  Jonas ; 
"it  is  not  deep." 

"  And  we  can  go  along  on  the  bank,  by 
the  side,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Very  well,"  said  his  father,  "  if  you  are 
not  afraid,  Lucy." 


126  THE   FRESHET. 

Lucy  did  feel  a  little  afraid  at  first,  but 
she  knew  that  if  her  Uncle  was  willing  that 
she  should  go,  there  could  not  be  any  dan 
ger  ;  so  she  made  no  objection.  Besides, 
she  knew  that  as  Jonas  was  to  walk  along 
before  her,  she  could  see  how  deep  it  was, 
and  there  could  not  be  any  deep  places 
without  his  finding  it  out  before  the  wagon 
went  into  them. 

Jonas  was  barefoot,  and  did  not  mind 
wetting  his  feet;  so  he  waded  in,  drawing 
the  wagon  after  him.  It  was  about  up  to 
his  ankles  all  the  way.  Lucy  looked  over 
the  side  of  the  wagon,  and  felt  a  little  fear 
as  she  saw  the  wheels  half  under  water; 
but  they  went  safely  through. 

Presently  they  began  to  descend  a  path 
which  led  them  into  the  woods.  They  heard 
the  roaring  of  the  water,  which  grew  louder 
and  louder  as  they  drew  nigh,  and  then 
Hollo  suddenly  stopped  and  said, 

"  Why,  father,  it  is  raining  here  in  the 
woods  now." 

Lucy  listened,  and  they  heard  the  drops 
of  rain  falling  upon  the  ground  all  around 
them;  and  yet,  looking  up,  they  saw  that 
the  sky  was  almost  perfectly  clear.  Pres- 


THE   FRESHET.  127 

ently  they  thought  that  this  was  only  the 
drops  falling  off  from  the  leaves  of  the  trees. 

Rollo  said  he  meant  to  see  if  it  was  so, 
and  he  ran  out  of  the  path,  and  took  hold  of 
a  slender  tree  with  a  large  top  of  branches 
and  leaves,  and,  looking  up  to  see  if  any 
drops  would  come  down,  he  gave  it  a  good 
shake  ;  and  true  enough,  down  came  a  per 
fect  shower  of  drops  all  into  his  face  and 
eyes.  At  first  he  was  astonished  at  such  an 
unexpected  shower-bath,  but  he  concluded, 
on  the  whole,  to  laugh,  and  not  cry  about 
it ;  and  he  came  back  wiping  his  face,  and 
looking  comically  enough.  All  the  party 
laughed  a  little  at  his  mishap,  and  then 
went  on. 

in  a  few  minutes  more,  they  came  in  sight 
of  the  foaming  brook.  The  water  was  very 
high ;  in  some  places,  the  banks  were  over 
flowed,  and  the  current  swept  along  furi 
ously,  dashing  against  the  rocks,  and  whirl 
ing  around  the  projecting  points. 

The  children  stopped,  and  gazed  upon  the 
scene  a  little  while,  and  then  Rollo  said  he 
was  going  to  sail  his  boats,  which  he  had 
brought  in  his  pocket. 

Just  then  Jonas  saw  a  plank  which  was 


128  THE   FKESHET. 

lying  partly  on  the  bank  and  partly  in  the 
water,  a  little  up  the  stream.  It  had  been 
placed  across  the  brook  some  distance  above 
for  a  bridge  ;  but  the  freshet  had  brought  it 
away,  and  it  had  drifted  down  to  where  it 
then  was. 

Jonas  said  he  would  find  a  place  for  Lucy 
to  stand  upon  with  it.  So  he  went  and 
pushed  off  this  plank,  and  let  it  float  down 
to  where  the  children  were  standing ;  and 
then  he  drew  it  up  upon  the  shore,  and  laid 
it  along,  so  that  Lucy  could  stand  upon  it 
safely,  and  launch  the  pea-pod  boats. 

These  boats  were  soon  all  borne  away 
rapidly  down  the  stream,  out  of  sight,  and 
then  they  threw  in  sticks  and  chips,  and 
watched  them  as  they  sailed  away,  and 
whirled  around  in  the  eddies,  or  swept  down 
the  rapids.  Thus  they  amused  themselves 
a  long  time,  and  then  slowly  returned 
home. 


THE  BOATS  WERE  soox  ALL  BORNE  AWAY. 


BLUEBERBYim 


131 


BLUEBERRYINGo 


OLD  TRUMPETER. 

HOLLO'S  mother  advised  him,  when  he 
went  to  bed  the  evening  before  the  day  fixed 
upon  for  the  blueberrying,  to  rise  early  the 
next  morning,  and  take  a  good  reading  les 
son  before  breakfast.  She  said  he  would 
enjoy  himself  much  more,  during  the  day,  if 
he  performed  all  his  usual  duties  before  he 
went.  Rollo  accordingly  arose  quite  early, 
and,  when  he  came  in  to  breakfast,  had  the 
satisfaction  of  telling  his  father  that  he  had 
read  his  morning  lesson,  and  prepared  his 
basket,  and  was  all  ready  to  go. 

He  wanted  Jonas  to  go  too,  and,  as  the 
last  time  when  he  asked  his  father's  permis 
sion  that  he  should  go,  he  lost  his  request 
by  asking  it  in  an  improper  manner,  he  de 
termined  to  be  careful  this  time. 

So  he  was  silent  at  breakfast  time  while 


132  BLUEBERR  YING, 

his  father  and  mother  were  talking,  and 
theft,  watching  an  opportunity  when  they 
seemed  disengaged,  he  asked  his  father  if 
Jonas  might  not  go  with  them. 

"  I  do  not  think  he  can  very  well,  for 
there  is  no  room  for  him.  Both  the  chaises 
will  be  full." 

"  But  could  not  he  ride  on  Old  Trum 
peter?"  said  Rollo. 

Old  Trumpeter  was  a  white  horse,  that 
had  served  the  family  some  time,  but  was 
now  rather  old,  and  not  a  very  good  travel 
ler. 

Hollo's  father  hesitated  a  moment,  and 
then  said,  perhaps  he  might.  "You  may  go 
and  tell  him  that  we  are  going,  and  that  if 
he  thinks  Old  Trumpeter  will  do  to  carry 
him,  he  may  go.  He  will  be  of  great  help 
to  us,  if  we  should  get  into  any  difficulty." 

Rollo  thought  of  the  bears  that  he  ex 
pected  to  see  on  the  mountain,  and  ran  to 
tell  Jonas.  Jonas  was  glad  to  go.  So  he 
went  and  gave  Old  Trumpeter  some  oats, 
and  got  the  saddle  and  bridle  ready.  He 
also  got  out  a  pair  of  saddle-bags  that  he 
always  used  on  such  occasions,  and  put  into 


BLUEBERBYING. 

them  a  hatchet,  a  clipper,  a  box  of  matches, 
and  some  rope.  On  second  thoughts,  he 
concluded  it  would  be  best  to  put  these 
things  into  the  chaise-box,  and  to  put  the 
saddle-bags  on  his  horse  empty,  as  he  might 
want  them  to  bring  something  home  in. 

After  breakfast,  Lucy  and  her  father, 
Hollo's  uncle  George,  drove  up  to  the  door, 
for  they  were  going  too ;  and  in  a  short 
time  you  might  have  seen  all  the  party  driv 
ing  away  from  the  door  —  Hollo's  father  and 
mother  in  the  first  chaise,  uncle  George,  and 
Hollo,  and  Lucy,  in  the  second,  and  Jonas 
on  Old  Trumpeter  behind. 

They  rode  on  for  a  mile  or  two,  and  then 
turned  off  of  the  main  road  into  the  woods, 
and  went  on  by  a  winding  and  beautiful 
road  until  they  came  in  sight  of  a  range  of 
mountains,  one  of  which  seemed  very  high 
and  near. 

"Is  that  Benalgon?"  said  Hollo. 

"  I  do  not  know,"  said  his  uncle  ;  "  I  have 
never  been  to  it  before  ;  but  I  suppose  Jonas 
can  tell." 

"  I  will  call  him,"  said  Hollo.  So  he 
turned  around,  and  kneeled  upon  the  seat, 


134  BLUEBERRYING. 

so  that  he  could  look  out  behind  the  chaise, 
for  the  back  curtain  was  up.  Lucy  did 
the  same,  but  Jonas  was  not  to  be  seen. 
They  looked  a  little  longer,  and  presently 
saw  him  coming  along  around  a  curve  in 
the  road.  They  beckoned  to  him,  and  as 
he  rode  up,  they  saw  he  had  a  bush  in  his 
hand.  He  came  up  to  the  side  of  the  chaise, 
and  handed  it  to  Hollo.  It  was  a  large 
blueberry  bush,  covered  with  beautiful  ripe 
blueberries.  Hollo  took  them,  and  admired 
them  very  much ;  and  at  first  he  was  going 
to  divide  them  between  Lucy  and  himself ; 
but  they  concluded,  on  the  whole,  to  send 
them  forward  to  his  mother.  Jonas  told 
them  the  mountain  before  them  ^vas  Benal- 
gon,  and  rode  on  to  carry  the  blueberry 
bush  to  the  other  chaise.  Presently  he 
came  back,  bringing  it  with  him,  except  a 
small  sprig  which  Rollo's  mother  had  taken 
off.  The  rest  she  had  sent  back  to  the  chil 
dren. 

"  Well,  Jonas,"  said  uncle  George,  when 
he  got  back,  "  I  do  not  see  but  that  Old 
Trumpeter  is  strong  enough  to  carry  you 
yet." 


BLTJEBERRYHSTG.  135 

"O  yes,  sir,"  said  Jonas,  "he  is  strong 
enough  to  carry  half  a  dozen  like  me." 

"O,  uncle  George,"  said  Rollo,  "let  him 
carry  me  too  with  Jonas.  I  can  ride  be 
hind." 

"  Very  well ;  if  you  want  to  ride  with  him 
a  little  while,  you  may,  if  Jonas  is  willing." 

Jonas  was,  and  Rollo  got  out,  and  climbed 
up  upon  a  stump,  by  the  side  of  the  road. 
Jonas  drove  up  to  the  stump,  and  Rollo 
clambered  up  behind  him,  with  a  switch  in 
his  hand. 

"Now,  Jonas,"  said  he,  "whenever  you 
want  him  to  go  any  faster,  you  just  speak 
to  me,  and  I  will  touch  him  up  with  my 
switch." 

Jonas  said  he  would,  and  they  jogged 
along  behind  the  chaise.  Lucy  kneeled  up 
on  the  cushion,  and  looked  out  behind,  talk 
ing  with  Rollo. 


DEVIATION. 

They -went  on  so  very  quietly  for  some 
time,  until  Jonas  said  there  was  a  turn  in 
the  road  on  before  them,  where  there  was  a 


13G  BLUEBERRYING. 

foot-path  that  led  across  a  ravine,  by  a  nearer 
way  than  the  chaise-road,  and  proposed  that 
Rollo  should  ask  leave  for  Jonas  and  him 
self  to  go  across  on  horse-back,  and  wait  for 
the  chaises,  when  they  should  come  out  on 
the  main  road. 

So  they  rode  up  to  the  chaise,  and  Rollo 
put  the  question  to  his  uncle  George. 

His  reply  was  that  he  could  not  say  any 
thing  about  it ;  Rollo  must  go  and  ask  his 
father. 

"  Would  you  go  ?  "  said  Jonas. 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo. 

"Well,  touch  up  Old  Trumpeter  then." 

So  Rollo  applied  his  switch,  and  the  horse 
trotted  on  fast.  Rollo  had  hard  work  to 
hold  on,  but  he  clasped  his  arm  tight  around 
Jonas's  waist,  and  succeeded  in  keeping  his 
seat. 

Rollo's  father  and  mother  were  riding 
some  distance  before  them,  but  they  saw 
Jonas  coining  up,  and  rode  slowly,  that  he 
might  overtake  them. 

"  Well,  Rollo,"  said  his  father,  "  how  do 
you  like  riding  double  ?  " 

"  Very  much,"  said  Rollo  ;  "  and  we  want 
you  to  let  Jonas  and  I  cut  across  by  the 


BLUEBERRYING.  137 

horse-path  through  the  valley,  and  wait  for 
you  at  the  mill." 

"Is  there  a  horse-path  across  here,  Jo 
nas?" 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Jonas. 

"Is  it  a  good  path?" 

"It  is  rather  rough,  sir,  through  the 
woods  and  bushes ;  but  it  is  a  pretty  good 
road." 

Hollo's  father  sat  hesitating  a  moment, 
and  then  said  — 

"  You  may  go,  if  you  choose,  but  I  advise 
you  not  to." 

"Why  do  you  advise  us  not  to?"  said 
Hollo. 

"  Why,  you  may  get  into  some  difficulty, 
and  so  we  get  separated." 

"Yes,  but,"  said  Rollo,  "it  is  not  near  so 
far  across,  and  we  shall  have  time  to  get 
through  to  the  mill  long  before  you  come 
along." 

"  Very  well,  you  may  do  as  you  please." 

"Jonas,  what  would  you  do?  Would 
you  go,  or  not  ?  " 

"I  think  I  would  not  go,  if  your  father 
thinks  we  had  better  not." 

"I  want  to  go  very  much,"  said  Rollo0 


138  BLUEBERBYING. 

"  Very  well,"  said  his  father ;  "  you  are 
willing  to  go  with  him,  I  suppose,  Jonas, 
are  you  not  ?  " 

"  O  yes,  sir,"  said  Jonas. 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  "let  us  go.  We  will 
be  very  careful,  father,  not  to  get  into  any 
difficulty." 

So  the  two  chaises  rode  on,  and  Jonas  and 
Rollo,  in  a  few  minutes,  turned  off  by  a 
narrow  path  that  struck  into  the  woods- 
Just  as  they  were  bending  down  their  heads 
to  pass  under  a  great  branch  of  a  tree,  Rollo 
looked  along,  and  saw  Lucy  waving  her 
handkerchief  to  him,  as  the  chaise  which 
she  was  in  disappeared  by  a  turn  of  the 
road. 

Rollo  at  first  felt  a  little  uneasy  to  think 
that  he  had  deserted  his  cousin,  as  it  were. 
He  thought  that  he  should  not  have  liked 
it  exactly,  if  she  had  gone  off,  and  left  him 
alone  so  in  the  chaise.  However,  it  was 
now  too  late  to  repent,  and  his  attention 
was  attracted  by  the  wild  and  romantic  scene 
around  him.  The  path  descended  obliquely, 
by  a  rough,  wet,  and  stony  way,  through 
a  dark  forest.  He  heard  the  sighing  of 
the  wind  in  the  tops  of  the  tall  trees,  and 


BLUEBERKYING.  139 

the  mellow  notes  of  forest  birds  far  off,  and 
high,  which  came  rich  and  sweet  to  his  ear 
with  a  peculiar  expression  of  solitude  and 
loneliness. 

The  boys  rode  on,  and  the  path  became 
more  and  more  slippery,  stony,  and  steep. 
Rollo  clung  tight  to  Jonas,  and  began  to  be 
somewhat  afraid.  He  would  have  proposed 
to  go  back,  but  he  was  ashamed  to  do  it. 
After  a  little  time,  he  asked  Jonas  whether 
the  path  was  as  bad  as  that  all  the  way. 

"  As  bad  as  this !  "  said  Jonas.  "  We  call 
this  very  good.  I  will  show  you  the  bad 
road  pretty  soon." 

Rollo  looked  frightened,  but  said  nothing. 

"The  road  seems  more  wet  than  common 
to-day,"  said  Jonas,  "  I  suppose  on  account 
of  the  rain  yesterday ;  and  I  declare,"  said 
he,  "I  am  afraid  we  shall  find  the  brook 
up." 

"The  brook  up  !  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes  —  why  did  not  I  think  of  that  be 
fore  ?  However,  we  must  go  on  now." 

"  Why  ?  "  said  Rollo.  "  Why  cannot  we 
go  back?" 

"  O,  because  we  should  be  too  late ;  be 
sides,  there  is  no  danger,  only  we  may  have 
to  wade  a  little." 


140  BLUEBEKBYING. 

As  they  went  on,  the  mud  in  the  road 
grew  deeper  and  deeper;  and  presently  Old 
Trumpeter's  legs  sunk  far  down  among  roots 
and  mire.  Rollo  began  to  feel  more  and 
more  alarmed,  and  heartily  wished  that  he 
had  taken  his  father's  advice. 

Soon  after,  they  came  to  a  place  where 
the  path,  for  some  distance  before  them, 
was  full  of  water,  deep  and  miry.  Jonas 
said  he  thought  that  they  had  better  go  out 
upon  one  side ;  so  he  made  the  horse  step 
over  a  log,  and  go  in  among  the  trees 
and  bushes.  The  branches  brushed  and 
scratched  Rollo  unmercifully,  though  he 
bent  down,  and  leaned  over  to  this  side  and 
that,  continually,  to  escape  them.  He  asked 
Jonas  why  this  path  had  not  dried  as  well 
as  the  main  road,  where  the  chaises  had 
gone  ;  and  Jonas  told  him  that  the  sun  and 
the  wind  were  the  great  means  of  drying 
the  open  road,  but  that  this  narrow  and 
secluded  path  was  shaded  from  the  sun,  and 
sheltered  from  the  wind ;  and  that  the 
water  consequently  remained  a  long  time 
among  the  moss,  and  roots,  and  mire. 

After  a  time,  they  got  back  into  the  path 
again;  and,  going  on  a  little  farther,  they 


BLUEBEEEYIXG.  141 

came  down  to  the  margin  of  the  brook. 
They  found  that  it  was  "  up,"  as  Jonas  had 
feared.  At  the  place  where-  the  path  went 
down  and  crossed  the  brook,  a  deep  cut  had 
been  worn  in  the  two  opposite  banks,  and 
this  was  filled  with  water,  and  above  and 
below  the  stream  rushed  on  in  a  torrent. 
Jonas  hesitated  a  moment,  and  then  asked 
Hollo  if  he  thought  he  could  hold  on,  while 
they  were  riding  through.  Rollo  said  he 
was  afraid  it  was  so  deep  as  to  drown  them. 
Jonas  then  said  that  he  might  get  off  and 
stand  upon  a  rock  by  the  side  of  the  path, 
while  he  rode  through,  first,  to  see  how  it 
was,  and  that  then  he  would  come  back  for 
him. 

So  Rollo  got  off,  in  fear  and  trembling,  and 
stood  on  the  rock,  while  Jonas  urged  his 
horse  into  the  water.  Old  Trumpeter  did 
not  much  like  this  kind  of  travelling,  but 
Jonas  half  persuaded  and  half  compelled 
him  to  go  through.  When  he  was  in  the 
middle,  the  water  came  up  so  high,  that 
Jonas  was  obliged  to  lift  up  his  feet  to 
keep  them  from  being  wet.  Presently,  how 
ever,  it  became  more  shoal,  as  the  horse 
walked  slowly  along ;  and  at  last  he  fairly 


142  BLUEBERRYING. 

reached  the  dry  ground,  and  stood  dripping 
011  the  bank. 

Rollo  was  glad  to  see  that  the  water  was 
no  deeper,  but  was  still  afraid  to  go  over. 
He  told  Jonas  he  could  not  go  over  there, 
and  that  he  must  go  back  with  him. 

"  No,"  said  Jonas,  "  that  would  not  be 
right." 

"  Why,"  said  Rollo,  "  we  can  ride  fast, 
and  overtake  them." 

"  Not  very  soon,"  said  Jonas.  "  If  we  go 
back  now,  they  will  get  to  the  mill  before 
us,  and  then  will  be  very  anxious  and  un 
happy,  thinking  that  something  has  hap 
pened  to  us;  and  perhaps  your  father  will 
come  through  here  after  us.  Now  it  was 
your  own  plan  coming  across  here,  and  you 
ought  not  to  make  other  people  suffer  by  it. 
Your  father  advised  you  not  to  come." 

"  I  know  it,"  said  Rollo  ;  "  what  a  foolish 
boy  I  was  !  I  shall  certainly  be  drowned." 

"  O  no,"  said  Jonas,  "  there  is  no  real 
danger,  or  I  should  not  make  you  go ; "  and 
so  saying,  he  came  back  slowly  through  the 
water.  "  See,"  said  he,  "  it  is  not  very 
deep." 


BLUEBERKYING.  143 


LITTLE    MOSETTE. 

After  some  further  persuasion,  Rollo  got 
on  behind  him,  and  they  began  to  make  their 
way  slowly  through  the  water  again.  Old 
Trumpeter  staggered  along,  but  not  very 
unsteadily  on  the  whole,  until  he  got  a  little 
past  the  middle,  when  he  blundered  upon  a 
stone  on  the  bottom,  which  he  could  not 
see,  and  fell  doAvn  011  his  knees.  Jonas 
caught  up  his  feet,  in  an  instant,  and  Rollo 
had  his  already  drawn  up  behind  him,  and 
they  both  grasped  the  saddle  convulsively. 
The  horse  happened  to  regain  his  feet  again 
in  a  moment,  so  that  they  contrived  to  hold 
on ;  and  in  a  few  minutes  they  were  drawn 
out  safely  upon  the  shore,  without  even  get 
ting  their  feet  wet. 

"  Well,  Old  Trumpeter,"  said  Jonas,  "you 
have  done  pretty  well  for  you,  and  you  have 
got  the  mire  washed  off  your  legs,  at  any 
rate.  But,  Rollo,  what  is  that  ?  " 

He  pointed  back,  as  he  said  this,  to  a  lit 
tle  tuft  floating  round  and  round  in  a  small 
eddy,  made  by  a  turn  of  the  brook,  just 
above  where  they  had  crossed.  He  turned 


144 


BLUEBERRYING. 


his  horse  towards  it.     "  It  is  a  bird's  nest,'' 
said  he. 

"So  it  is,"  said  Rollo,  "and  I  verily  be 
lieve  there  is  a  little  bird  in  it." 


Jonas  jumped  off  of  the  horse,  handed  the 
bridle  to  Rollo,  and  took  up  a  long  stick  ly 
ing  on  the  ground,  and  very  gently  and 
cautiously  drew  the  nest  in  to  the  shore. 
He  took  it  up  with  great  care,  and  brought 
it  to  Rollo. 


BLUEBEERYING.  145 

There  was  a  little  bird  in  it,  scarcely 
fledged.  Jonas  said  he  believed  it  was  a 
robin,  and  that  it  must  have  been  washed 
off  from  its  place  on  some  bush,  by  the 
freshet  in  the  brook.  The  bottom  of  the 
nest  was  soaked  through  by  the  water,  as  if 
it  had  been  floating  some  time ;  and  the  lit 
tle  bird  kept  opening  its  month  wide.  The 
poor  little  thing  was  hungry,  and  heard 
Jonas  and  Rollo,  and  thought  they  were  its 
mother,  come  to  give  it  something  to  eat. 

"  What  shall  we  do  with  him  ? "  said 
Rollo. 

"  He  will  die  if  we  leave  him  here,"  said 
Jonas,  "  for  he  has  lost  his  mother  now.  I 
think  we  had  better  carry  him  home,  if  we 
can,  and  feed  him,  till  he  is  old  enough  to 

%•" 

" He  is  hungry,"  said  Rollo ;  "let  us  feed 
him  now." 

"  We  have  not  got  any  thing  to  feed  him 
with.  Perhaps  I  can  catch  a  fly,  or  a  grass 
hopper." 

"  O,  that  will  not  do,"  said  Rollo,  "  you 
might  as  well  kill  him  as  kill  a  grasshop 
per." 

10 


146  BLUEBERRYING. 

Jonas  could  not  reply  to  this,  and  they 
concluded  to  carry  nest  and  all  carefully  to 
the  mill,  and  show  it  to  Rollo's  father  there. 
But  how  to  carry  it  was  the  difficulty.  If 
either  of  them  undertook  to  hold  it  in  one 
hand,  he  was  afraid  the  bird  might  be  jolted 
out ;  and  neither  of  them  had  but  one  hand 
to  spare  for  Rollo  must  have  one  hand  to 
hold  on  with,  and  Jonas  one  to  drive.  At 
last  Jonas  took  off  his  cap,  and  placed  it 
bottom  upwards  on  the  saddle  before  him, 
and  put  the  nest,  with  the  bird  in  it,  in  that, 
and  then  drove  carefully  along.  The  road 
grew  much  smoother  and  better  after  they 
had  passed  the  brook;  and,  after  going  on  a 
short  distance  farther,  they  came  in  sight  of 
the  mill. 

They  had  been  detained  so  long  that  the 
chaises  had  reached  the  mill  before  them ; 
and  the  party  in  the  chaises  were  looking 
out  down  the  path  where  they  expected  the 
boys  were  to  come  out,  watching  for  them 
with  considerable  interest. 

"  There  they  come  at  last,"  said  Lucy,  as 
she  perceived  a  movement  among  the 
bushes,  and  saw  Old  Trumpeter's  white 
head  coming  forward. 


BLUEBERRYING.  147 

"Yes,"  said  Hollo's  mother,  "but  they 
have  met  with  some  accident.  Jonas  has 
lost  his  cap." 

By  this  time  the  boys  had  emerged  from 
the  bushes,  and  were  coming  along  the  path 
slowly,  Jonas  bareheaded,  and  Rollo  hold 
ing  on  carefully.  Lucy  saw  that  Jonas  was 
holding  something  before  him  011  the  saddle, 
and  wondered  what  it  was.  Hollo's  mother 
said  she  was  afraid  they  had  got  hurt. 

As  soon  as  they  came  within  hearing, 
Hollo  heard  his  father's  voice  calling  out  to 
him, 

"  Rollo,  what  is  the  matter  ?  Have  you 
got  into  any  difficulty  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Rollo ;  "  we  had  some 
difficulty,  and  I  should  be  sorry  I  did  not 
take  your  advice,  only  then  we  should  not 
have  found  this  little  bird." 

"What  bird?"  said  they  all. 

By  this  time  they  had  come  up  near  the 
chaises,  and  Jonas  carefully  lifted  the  bird's 
nest  out  of  his  cap,  and  held  it  so  that  they 
could  all  see  it,  while  Rollo  told  them  the 
story.  They  all  looked  much  pleased,  but 
Lucy  seemed  in  delight.  She  wanted  to 


148  BLTJEBEKKYING. 

have  it  go  in  their  chaise,  and  asked  Rollo 
to  let  her  hold  the  nest  in  her  lap. 

Rollo  did  not  answer  very  directly,  for 
he  was  busy  looking  at  the  bird, — seeing 
him  open  his  mouth,  and  wishing  he  had 
something  to  give  him  to  eat. 

"Father,"  said  he,  "what  shall  we  feed 
him  with?  Jonas  was  going  to  catch  a 
grasshopper,  but  I  thought  that  would  not 
be  right." 

"Why  not?"  said  uncle  George. 

"Because,"  said  Hollo,  "he  has  as  good 
a  right  to  his  life  as  the  bird.  Has  he  not, 
father?" 

"Not  exactly,"  said  his  father;  "a  bird 
is  an  animal  of  much  higher  grade  than  a 
grasshopper,  and  is  probably  much  more 
sensible  of  pain  and  pleasure,  and  his  life  is 
of  more  value ;  just  as  a  man  is  a  much 
higher  animal  than  a  bird.  It  would  be 
right  to  kill  a  bird  to  save  a  man's  life,  even 
if  he  were  only  an  animal ;  and  so  it  would 
be  right  to  destroy  a  grasshopper  or  a  worm, 
to  save  a  robin." 

"  But  I  read  in  a  book  once,"  said  Lucy, 
"  that  when  we  tread  on  a  worm,  he  feels  as 
much  pain  in  being  killed  as  a  giant  would." 


BLTJEBERRYING.  149 

"  I  do  not  think  it  is  true,"  said  he.  "  I 
think  that  there  is  a  vast  diversity  among 
the  different  animals,  in  respect  to  their 
sensibility  to  pain,  according  to  their  struc 
ture,  and  the  delicacy  of  their  organization. 
I  think  a  crew  of  a  fishing-vessel  might 
catch  a  whole  cargo  of  mackerel,  and  not 
cause  as  much  pain  as  one  of  their  men 
would  suffer  in  having  his  leg  bitten  off  by 
a  shark." 

"  Well,  father,"  said  Hollo,  "do  you  think 
we  had  better  give  him  a  grasshopper  ?  " 

"  O  no,"  said  Lucy,  ua  grasshopper  would 
not  be  good  to  eat,  he  has  got  so  many  el 
bows  sticking  out.  Let  us  give  him  some 
blueberries." 

"O  yes,"  said  Rollo,  "that  would  be  beau 
tiful." 

So  he  slid  down  off  of  Old  Trumpeter's 
back,  and  ran  to  the  side  of  the  road,  to  see 
if  he  could  not  find  some  blueberries. 

He  brought  a  few  in  his  hand,  and  his 
father  took  them,  saying  that  he  would  feed 
the  bird  for  him.  He  squeezed  out  the  pulp 
of  the  berries,  and  then  made  a  chirping 
sound,  when  the  bird  opened  his  mouth,  and 


150  BLUEBERRYING. 

he  fed  him  with  the  soft  pulp,  and  threw 
away  the  skins.  After  giving  the  bird  two 
or  three  berries  in  this  way,  they  put  him 
back  into  the  nest,  and  gave  the  nest  to 
Lucy  to  hold  in  her  lap,  and  all  the  party 
prepared  to  go  on. 

They  rode  along  about  a  mile  farther,  and 
then  came  to  the  place  where  they  must 
leave  the  horses,  and  prepare  to  ascend  the 
mountain  on  foot.  They  unharnessed  them, 
so  that  they  might  stand  more  quietly,  and 
then  fastened  them  to  trees  by  the  side  of 
the  road. 

While  they  were  thus  taking  care  of  their 
horses,  Rollo  and  Lucy  were  standing  by, 
with  Hollo's  mother  looking  at  the  bird. 

"What  are  }TOU  going  to  do  with  him, 
Rollo?"  said  his  mother. 

"  Why,  I  should  like  to  carry  him  home, 
and  keep  him,  if  you  are  willing." 

"I  am,  on  one  condition." 

"What is  that?" 

"  You  must  keep  him  in  a  cage  with  the 
door  always  open,  so  that,  as  soon  as  he  is 
old  enough  to  fly  away,  he  may  go  if  he 


BLUEBERRYING.  151 

"  Then  he  will  certainly  fly  away,  and  \\Q 
shall  lose  him  forever,"  said  Lucy. 

"  That  is  the  only  condition,"  replied 
Rollo's  mother. 

"  But  why,  mother,"  said  he,  "  why  maj 
we  not  keep  him  shut  up  safe  ?  " 

"If  I  were  to  tell  you  the  reasons  now, 
they  would  not  satisfy  you,  you  are  so  eager 
to  keep  him.  I  think  you  had  better  deter 
mine  to  comply  with  the  condition,  good- 
humoredly,  and  say  no  more  about  it,  but 
try  to  think  of  a  name  for  him." 

"Well,  mother,  what  do  you  think  would 
be  a  good  name  ?  " 

"  I  do  not  know :  you  and  Lucy  must 
think  of  one." 

Just  then  uncle  George  finished  tying  his 
horse,  and  came  along  to  where  the  children 
were  standing,  and,  hearing  their  conversa 
tion,  and  finding  that  Lucy  and  Rollo  were 
perplexed  about  a  name,  he  told  them  he 
thought  they  might,  not  improperly,  call 
him  Noah,  as,  like  Noah,  by  floating  in  a 
sort  of  ark,  he  was  saved  from  a  flood. 

"  I  think  he  was  more  like  Moses  than 
Noah,*'  said  Lucy. 

"  Why  ?  "  said  her  father. 


152  BLUEBEHEYIKG. 

44  Because  Moses  was  a  little  thing  when 
they  found  him,  and  then  the  ark  of  bul 
rushes  was  something  like  a  bird's  nest.  I 
think  you  had  better  name  him  Moses,  Rol- 
lo,"  said  she. 

Hollo  seemed  a  little  at  a  loss  :  he  said 
he  thought  he  was  a  good  deal  like  Moses, 
but  then  he  did  not  think  that  Moses  was  a 
very  pretty  name  for  a  bird. 

"Do  you  think  it  is,  mother?"  said  he. 

"  I  do  not  know  but  that  it  Avould  do  very 
well.  You  might  alter  it  a  little ;  call  him 
Mosette,  if  you  think  that  would  be  any  bet 
ter  for  a  bird's  name." 

Rollo  and  Lucy  repeated  the  name  Mo 
sette  to  themselves  several  times,  and  con 
cluded  that  they  should  like  it  very  much. 
By  this  time,  the  horses  were  all  ready,  and 
Jonas  recommended  that  they  should  hide 
Mosette  away  somewhere,  until  they  re 
turned  from  the  mountain,  for  it  would  be 
troublesome  to  them,  and  somewhat  danger 
ous  to  the  bird,  to  carry  him  up  and  down. 

The  children  approved  of  this  plan,  though 
they  were  rather  unwilling  to  part  with  the 
bird,  at  all.  They  went  just  into  the  bushes 
and  found  a  very  secret  place,  by  the  corner 


BLUEBERRYING.  153 

of  a  large  rock,  where  the  shrubs  and  wild 
flowers  grew  thick,  so  that  it  would  be  en 
tirely  out  of  sight. 


GOING  UP. 

They  then  set  forward,  the  children  in 
advance  of  the  rest.  Jonas  walked  with 
Rollo  and  Lucy,  and  lie  had  round  his  waist 
a  broad  leather  belt,  which  he  always  wore 
on  such  occasions,  and  which  had,  on  one 
side,  his  hatchet  and  knife,  and  on  the  other 
a  sort  of  bag  or  pocket,  containing  several 
things,  such  as  matches,  a  little  dipper,  &c. 

Hollo's  father  and  mother,  and  his  uncle 
George,  walked  along  behind  them.  The 
way  was,  for  some  distance,  a  sort  of  cart- 
path,  too  steep  and  rough  for  a  chaise,  but 
hard  and  dry,  and  pretty  comfortable  walk 
ing.  Rollo  and  Lucy  asked  Jonas  if  he 
would  not  tell  them  a  story,  as  they  went 
along,  to  beguile  the  way. 

Jonas  began  a  story,  about  a  boy  that 
lived  a  long  time  on  a  mountain  alone,  but 
he  had  not  proceeded  far,  before  they  heard 


154  BLUBBER  RYING. 

a  voice  behind,  calling  them.  They  looked 
back,  and  saw  that  Hollo's  father  was  beck 
oning  them  to  stop. 

They  waited  till  he  came  up,  and  he  told 
them  he  wanted  to  give  them  their  orders 
for  the  day ;  and  they  were  rules,  he  said, 
which  ought  to  be  observed  on  all  berrying 
expeditions,  by  children. 

"First"  said  he,  "always  keep  in  sight 
of  me.  For  this  purpose,  watch  me  all  the 
time,  when  we  are  stopping,  and  keep  be 
fore,  rather  than  behind,  when  Ave  are  walk 
ing. 

"  Second.  Take  no  unnecessary  steps,  but 
keep  in  the  right  path,  and  walk  slowly  and 
steadily  there,  so  as  to  save  your  strength. 
Otherwise  you  will  get  tired  out  very  soon. 

"  Third.  Do  not  touch  any  flower  or 
berry  that  you  see,  except  blueberries,  with 
out  first  showing  them  to  one  of  us." 

The  children  listened  to  these  rules,  and 
promised  to  obey  them,  and  then  walked 
on.  They  tried  to  walk  slowly  and  stead 
ily,  listening  to  Jonas's  story.  They  turned 
off,  after  a  time,  into  a  narrower  and  steeper 
path,  and  ascended,  stepping  from  stone  to 
stone.  The  trees  and  bushes  hung  over 


BLUEBERRYING.  155 

their  heads,  making  the  walk  shady  and 
cool. 

After  slowly  ascending  in  this  way,  for 
some  time,  they  came  out  of  the  woods  into 
an  opening  of  rocky  ground,  and  patches  of 
blueberry  bushes.  They  saw,  also,  at  some 
distance  before  them,  three  or  four  boys,  sit 
ting  upon  a  rock,  with  pails  and  baskets  in 
their  hands,  talking  and  laughing  loud. 
They  did  not  take  much  notice  of  them,  but 
walked  on  quietly.  They  were  going  on 
directly  towards  them,  but  Hollo's  father 
called  them,  and  pointed  for  them  to  turn 
off  to  the  right,  round  a  rocky  precipice 
which  was  in  that  direction. 

The  children  were  turning  accordingly, 
when  they  heard  a  shout  from  the  boys  be 
fore  them,  —  "  Hallo,  —  come  this  way,  and 
we  will  show  you  where  the  blueberries  are." 

"  Father,"  said  Rollo,  as  he  stopped  and 
turned  round  to  his  father,  "  the  boys  say 
they  will  show  us  the  blueberries,  out  that 
way :  shall  we  go  and  see  ?  " 

"No,"  said  his  father  in  a  low  voice,  so 
that  the  boys  did  not  hear.  "  No :  go  the 
way  I  told  you." 


156  BLUEBERRYING. 

They  went  along,  and  presently  got  round 
the  precipice  out  of  sight  of  the  boys  again. 
They  walked  slowly  until  their  parents  over 
took  them. 

"  Father,"  said  Rollo,  "  why  could  you 
not  let  us  go  out  with  those  boys?  They 
said  they  were  thickest  out  there." 

"  Because,"  said  he,  "  I  presume  they  are 
not  good  boys,  and  I  do  not  want  you  to 
have  any  thing  to  do  with  them." 

"  But,  father,  they  must  be  good  boys,  or 
they  would  not  want  to  show  us  the  blue 
berries.  If  they  were  bad,  selfish  boys,  they 
would  want  to  keep  all  the  good  places  to 
themselves." 

If  Rollo  had  only  asked  his  father,  in  a 
modest  manner,  how  it  could  be  that  the 
boys  were  bad,  when  they  wanted  to  show 
him  the  best  place  for  blueberries,  it  would 
have  been  very  proper ;  but  his  manner  of 
speaking  showed  a  silly  confidence  in  his 
own  opinion,  which  was  very  wrong.  His 
father,  however,  did  not  attempt  to  reason 
with  him,  but  only  said, 

"  I  think  they  are  bad  boys,  for  I  over 
heard  them  using  bad  language  ;  and  I  wish 
you  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  them." 


BLUBBER-EYING.  157 

He  then  found  a  good  place  for  them  to 
begin  to  gather  their  berries.  It  was  a 
beautiful  spot  of  open  ground,  between  the 
thick  woods  on  one  side,  and  a  broken,  rocky 
precipice  on  the  other. 

Uncle  George  took  Jonas  forward  alone, 
until  they  were  out  of  sight,  and  presently 
returned  without  him.  Rollo  asked  where 
Jonas  was  gone,  and  his  uncle  told  him  that 
that  was  a  secret  at  present.  They  heard, 
soon  after,  the  strokes  of  his  hatchet  in  the 
woods,  on  before  them,  but  could  not  im 
agine  what  he  could  be  doing, 

Thus  things  went  on  very  pleasantly,  and 
they  gathered  a  large  quantity  of  berries. 
There  was,  indeed,  in  the  course  of  the  day, 
a  serious  difficulty  between  Rollo  and  the 
bad  boys;  and  there  is  an  account  of  it 
given  in  the  next  story  of  "TROUBLE  ON 
THE  MOUNTAIN."  With  this  exception, 
every  thing  went  on  well  until  about  noon, 
when  Rollo  observed  that  Jonas  had  been 
missing  a  long  time. 


158  BLUEBERRYING. 


THE   SECRET   OUT. 

"Where  is  Jonas,  all  this  time?"  said 
Rollo  to  Lucy. 

Lucy  said  that  he  had  been  busy,  a  long 
time,  doing  something  over  beyond  some 
rocks,  but  she  did  not  know  what,  for  her 
father  told  her  she  must  not  go  to  see. 
Rollo  wondered  what  the  secret  was,  and 
he  was  just  going  to  ask  his  father  to  let 
him  go  and  see  what  Jonas  was  doing,  when 
they  saw  him  coming  out  from  the  bushes. 
He  came  up  to  Rollo's  father,  and  told  him 
that  it  was  all  ready.  Then  Rollo's  father 
called  to  all  the  company,  and  told  them  it 
was  time  to  stop  gathering  berries,  and  they 
might  take  up  their  baskets  and  follow  him. 

The  baskets  and  pails  were  heavy  and 
full,  and  the  whole  party  walked  along, 
carrying  them  carefully  towards  the  place 
where  Jonas  had  come  from.  Rollo's  father 
led  the  way.  They  entered  into  a  little 
thicket,  and  passed  through  it  by  a  narrow 
path.  They  came  out  presently  into  a  sort 
of  opening,  on  a  brow  of  the  mountain.  On 
one  side  they  could  look  down  upon  a  vast 


BLUEBERRYIXG.  159 

extent  of  country,  exhibiting  a  beautiful 
variety  of  forests,  rivers,  villages,  and  farms. 
On  the  other  side  was  a  rocky  precipice, 
rising  abruptly  to  a  considerable  height, 
and  then  sloping  off  towards  the  summit  of 
the  mountain.  They  walked  along  a  few 
steps  on  a  smooth  surface  of  the  rock,  be 
tween  patches  of  grass  and  blueberry  bushes, 
until  Lucy  and  Rollo  ran  forward  to  a  brook 
which  came  foaming  down  the  precipice, 
and  then,  after  tumbling  along  over  rocks  a 
little  way,  took  another  foaming  leap  down 
the  mountain,  and  was  lost  among  the  trees 
below. 

The  party  all  stepped  carefully  over  this 
brook,  and  then  walked  along  up  the  bank 
on  the  opposite  side  until  they  came  to  the 
precipice.  Here  they  were  surprised  and 
pleased  to  see  a  large  bower  built,  in  front 
of  a  little  sort  of  cavern  or  recess  in  the 
rock.  Jonas  had  built  it  of  large  limbs  of 
trees  and  bushes,  which  he  had  leaned  up 
against  the  rock,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  en 
close  a  large  space  within.  There  was  an 
opening  left  round  on  the  farther  side,  next 
the  rock,  and  they  all  went  round  and  went 
in  —  Rollo  first,  then  Lucy,  then  the  others. 


160  BLUEBERTIYING. 

They  found  that  smooth  and  clean  logs  and 
stones  were  arranged  around  the  sides  of  the 
bower ;  and  in  the  middle,  on  a  carpet  of 
leaves,  was  very  abundant  provision  for  a 
rustic  dinner. 

There  was  bread,  and  butter,  and  ham, 
and  gingerbread,  and  pie,  and  glasses  for 
water  from  the  brook.  Rollo  and  Lucy  won 
dered  how  all  those  things  could  have  got 
up  the  mountain.  Presently,  however,  they 
recollected  that,  when  they  were  coming  up, 
Jonas  had  two  covered  baskets  to  bring, 
and  they  thought,  at  the  time,  that  they 
seemed  to  be  heavy. 

Thus  the  day  passed  away,  and  towards 
evening  they  came  down  the  mountain. 
Some  remarkable  things  happened  when 
they  were  coming  down,  which  will  be  re 
lated  in  the  story  called  "  TROUBLE  ON  THE 
MOUNTAIN." 


TROUBLE   ON   THE    MOUNTAIN. 


163 


TROUBLE  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN. 


BOASTING. 


"How  pleasant  it  is  here  !  "  said  Rollo  to 
his  cousin  Lucy,  as  they  were  gathering 
blueberries  high  up  on  old  Mount  Benalgon, 
the  day  they  went  up  with  Rollo's  father 
and  mother,  and  uncle ;  "  and  how  thick 
the  blueberries  are,  Lucy  !  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Lucy,  "  they  are  very  thick, 
I  think ;  and  how  far  we  can  see  now,  we 
are  up  here  so  high !  I  wish  we  were  up  on 
that  great  high  rock." 

Rollo  looked  where  Lucy  pointed,  and  he 
saw,  away  above  them,  a  rocky  summit  pro 
jecting  out  from  the  mountain.  The  front 
of  the  rock  was  ragged  and  precipitous,  but 
it  was  flat  and  mossy  upon  the  top,  and  firs 
and  other  evergreen  trees  grew  there,  some 
of  them  hanging  over  the  edge. 


164    TROUBLE  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

"  I  wish  I  could  get  up  there,"  said  Lucy. 

"I  wish  I  could  too,"  said  Rollo.  "I 
should  like  to  climb  up  one  of  those  trees 
which  hangs  over,  and  then  I  could  look 
down." 

"O,  Rollo,"  said  Lucy,  "you  would  not 
dare  to  climb  up  one  of  those  trees." 

"Yes,  I  should  dare  to,"  said  Rollo. 

Rollo  was  sometimes  a  proud,  boasting 
boy,  pretending  that  he  could  do  great 
things,  and  talking  very  largely.  This  was 
one  of  his  greatest  faults  ;  and  whenever  he 
seemed  to  be  in  this  boasting  mood,  he 
almost  always  got  into  some  difficulty  after 
it.  There  is  a  text  in  the  Bible  that  was 
proved  true,  very  often,  in  Rollo's  case.  It 
is  this  —  "  Pride  cometh  before  destruction, 
and  a  haughty  spirit  before  a  fall."  Rollo 
had  a  sad  fall  this  day,  though  it  was  not 
from  that  high  rock.  It  was  a  different  sort 
of  a  fall  from  that,  as  we  shall  presently  see. 

"  Lucy,"  said  he  again,  "  I  do  not  believe 
but  that  I  could  get  up  upon  that  rock 
myself.  I  can  climb  rocks." 

"  O  no,  you  could  not,"  said  Lucy. 

"  Why,  yes,  I  see  a  way." 


TROUBLE  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN.    165 

"  Which  way  ?  " 

UO,  round  by  that  great  black  log. 
There  is  a  path  there  through  the  bushes." 

"O  no,"  said  Lucy,  "you  could  not  get 
up  there.  But  there  are  some  boys  at  that 
log ;  what  boys  are  they  ?  " 

Hollo  looked.  They  were  some  boys 
which  they  had  seen  coming  up  the  moun 
tain,  and  Rollo's  father  had  warned  him 
not  to  go  near  them.  They  had  wanted 
Rollo  to  go  with  them  before,  but  his  father 
had  forbidden  it.  Rollo  wanted  to  go,  and 
now  he  was  glad  to  see  them  again;  but 
Lucy  was  sorry. 


GETTING   IN   TROUBLE. 

The  blueberries  were  very  thick  and 
large,  and  the  bottoms  of  the  baskets  were 
soon  covered  with  them.  Each  one  picked 
where  he  found  them  most  plenty. 

Rollo  and  Lucy  kept  pretty  near  together, 
talking,  and  gradually  strayed  away  to  some 
distance  from  the  rest  of  the  party.  After 


166    TEOUBLE  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

a  little  while,  Rollo  looked  up  and  saw  the 
three  boys  pretty  near  them.  As  soon  as 
Lucy  saw  them  so  near,  she  moved  along 
towards  their  parents;  and  Rollo  ought  to 
have  done  so  too,  but  he  remained  where  he 
was,  and  presently  one  of  the  boys  came  up 
to  him. 

"Why  did  you  not  come  up  where  we 
were  ?  "  said  he.  "  They  were  thicker  out 
there." 

"My  father  would  not  let  me,"  said 
Rollo. 

"  O,  come  along,"  said  the  boy ;  "  he  will 
not  care.  Besides,  he  will  not  know  it.  He 
is  busy  picking  by  himself.  He  does  not 
mind  where  you  are." 

Rollo  thought  this  was  not  exactly  the 
way  that  a  good  boy  would  speak  of  obey 
ing  a  father,  but  he  wanted  very  much  to 
see  the  place  where  the  berries  were  so 
much  thicker. 

"How  far  is  it?"  said  he  to  the  boy. 

"  O,  it  is  only  a  little  way  —  just  around 
that  rock." 

By  this  time  the  other  two  boys  came  up, 
and  they  talked  with  Rollo  a  little  while, 
and  endeavored  to  persuade  him  to  go.  He 


TROUBLE   ON   THE   MOUNTAIN.         167 

said  finally  that  he  would  go  and  ask  his 
father.  So  he  left  his  basket,  and  went  and 
asked  his  father  if  he  might  just  go  with 
those  boys  round  the  rock.  He  said  the 
blueberries  were  much  thicker  around  there, 
and  also  that  he  had  been  talking  with  the 
boys,  and  he  was  sure  they  were  good  boys. 

"No,  Rollo,"  said  his  father,  decidedly, 
44 1  cannot  think  that  any  boys  that  use 
bad  language  can  be  good  boys,  or  safe  com 
panions  for  you.  I  had  rather  you  would 
keep  with  us.  If  they  speak  to  you,  answer 
them  civilly ;  but  the  less  you  have  to  say  to 
them  or  do  with  them,  the  better.  In  fact, 
I  had  rather  you  would  not  go  back  to  them 
at  all." 

"  I  must,"  said  Rollo,  "to  get  my  basket." 

He  accordingly  returned  to  his  basket, 
and  told  the  boys  that  his  father  preferred 
that  he  should  stay  where  he  was. 

The  biggest  boy  of  the  three  was  a  ragged 
and  dirty-looking  boy ;  the  others  called  him 
Jim,  and  he  talked  with  Rollo  a  good  deal. 
Rollo's  conscience  reproved  him  for  not  leav 
ing  them,  and  going  back  to  his  father  ;  but 
he  wanted  to  stay  and  hear  their  talk,  and 


168    TROUBLE  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

he  quieted  his  conscience  by  saying  to  him 
self  that  his  father  told  him  to  treat  them 
civilly.  At  first  the  boys  were  careful  what 
they  said  to  Rollo ;  but  at  length  Jim  grew 
more  and  more  bold.  He  used  language 
which  Rollo  knew  was  wrong,  and  he  told 
Rollo  that  he  was  a  fool  to  stick  so  close  to 
his  father ;  that  he  was  big  enough  to  find 
his  way  alone  all  over  the  mountain,  if  he 
was  of  a  mind  to. 

All  this  Rollo  was  silly  enough  to  believe, 
and,  as  his  father  only  required  him  to  keep 
in  sight,  he  thought  he  would  show  the  boys 
that  he  was  not  so  much  afraid  as  they 
thought  he  was  ;  and  so  he  gradually  moved 
off  farther  and  farther  from  his  parents,  as 
he  went  on  gradually  filling  up  his  basket. 
Lucy,  in  the  meantime,  went  nearer  and 
nearer  to  them,  and  in  a  short  time  was 
safely  gathering  her  blueberries  by  her 
aunt's  side. 

Things  went  on  so  for  an  hour.  Rollo's 
mother  asked  his  father  whether  he  had  not 
better  call  Rollo  to  them. 

" No,"  said  he ;  "I  have  told  him  his  duty 
once,  plainly,  and  now,  if  he  does  not  do  it, 


TROUBLE  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN.    169 

lie  must  take  the  consequences.  I  believe 
I  shall  leave  him  to  himself.*' 

The  boys  went  on  talking  to  one  another 
and  to  Rollo,  telling  various  stories  about 
their  running  away  from  school,  stealing 
apples,  and  such  things.  Rollo  was  much 
interested  in  listening  to  them,  though  he 
knew,  all  the  time,  that  he  was  doing  wrong. 
But  he  had  not  the  courage  to  leave  them 
abruptly,  as  he  ought  to  have  done,  and 
go  back  to  his  father. 

Rollo  took  a  great  deal  of  pains  with  the 
berries  he  picked ;  he  chose  the  largest  and 
ripest,  and  was  very  careful  not  to  get  in 
any  sticks  and  leaves.  His  basket  was  small, 
and  he  intended,  as  soon  as  he  got  it  full,  to 
carry  it  carefully  to  his  mother,  and  pour 
his  berries  into  her  large  tin  pail.  He  was 
succeeding  finely  in  this,  but  then  he  had 
insensibly  strayed  away  so  far  from  his 
father,  that  now  he  was  entirely  out  of  his 
sight. 

At  length,  as  Jim  was  sitting  on  a  log  to 
rest  himself,  as  he  said,  he  saw  a  little  bird 
alight  on  the  branch  of  a  black  stump  near. 

"Hush,"  said  he,  "there  is  a  Bob-a-link 
See  how  I  will  fix  him." 


170    TROUBLE  OX  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

So  saying,  he  picked  up  a  stone,  and  was 
going  to  throw  it. 

Hollo  begged  him  not  to  kill  that  pretty 
li ttle  bird  ;  but  he  paid  no  attention  to  what 
Rollo  said.  He  threw  the  stone  with  all  his 
force ;  but  fortunately  it  did  not  hit  the 
bird.  It  struck  the  limb  that  the  bird  was 
perched  upon,  and  shivered  it  to  fragments, 
and  the  bird  flew  away,  terrified. 

"Now,  what  did  you  do  that  for?"  said 
Hollo  ;  "you  might  have  hit  him." 

"  Hit  him  !  "  said  he  ;  "  I  meant  to  hit 
him,  to  be  sure." 

"  But  what  good  does  it  do  to  kill  little 
birds?  I  found  one  this  morning,  and  I 
would  not  kill  him  for  any  thing." 

"  Where  did  you  find  him  ?  "  said  Jim. 

Rollo  then  told  the  boys  all  about  his 
finding  a  little  bird,  in  its  nest,  floating  in 
the  brook,  and  about  their  naming  him 
Mosette  ;  as  is  described  in  the  story  called 
"  BLUEBERRYING  "  ;  and  Jim  said,  if  he  had 
found  him,  he  would  have  put  him  on  a 
fence,  for  a  mark  to  fire  stones  at.  "  I  would 
have  made  him  peep,  I  tell  you,"  said  he. 

Rollo  said  he  would  not  have  him  killed  on 


TROUBLE  OX  THE  MOUNTAIN.    171 

any  account.  He  was  going  to  carry  him 
home,  and  feed  him,  and  tame  him. 

"  But  where  is  he  now  ?  "  said  Jim. 

"  O,  we  hid  him  behind  a  stone,  down  at 
the  foot  of  the  mountain,  where  our  horses 
are  tied." 

"But  how  can  you  find  him  again? "  said 
Jim. 

"  O,"  said  Rollo,  "  we  know  ;  it  was  be 
hind  the  corner  of  a  stone,  just  in  the 
bushes,  where  we  tied  the  horse." 

Jim  winked  at  the  other  boys  when  Rollo 
said  this,  though  Rollo  did  not  see  it.  He 
was  vexed  with  Rollo,  because  he  reproved 
him  for  stoning  the  bird. 

"  I  would  set  him  up  for  a  mark,  if  I  had 
him,"  said  Jim.  "  I  wish  I  had  been  there 
when  you  found  him  ;  I  would  have  taken 
him  away  from  you." 

"  No,  you  would  not  have  taken  him 
away.  Jonas  would  not  let  you." 

"Jonas!  who  is  Jonas?  and  what  do  you 
think  I  care  for  Jonas  ?  "  said  he. 

He  then  came  up  to  Rollo,  and  looked 
into  his  basket,  and  saw  it  nearly  full  of 
large  ripe  blueberries. 


172    TROUBLE  OX  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

"  And  I  believe,"  said  he,  "  that  you  have 
stolen  some  of  my  berries  out  of  my  basket, 
while  I  have  been  sitting  here." 

"No,  I  have  not,"  said  Hollo.  "I  have 
not  touched  your  basket." 

"  You  have,"  said  Jim,  fiercely,  "  and  I 
will  have  them  back  again.  Besides,  I  put 
some  into  yours,  while  you  went  to  your 
father.  So  half  the  berries  in  your  basket 
are  mine." 

This  was  a  lie ;  but  bad  boys  like  Jim  will 
always  lie,  when  they  have  anything  to  gain 
by  it.  He  came  up  to  Rollo,  and  began  to 
pull  his  basket  away  from  him.  Rollo 
struggled  against  him,  and  began  to  cry. 
But  Jim  was  too  strong  for  him ;  he  tipped 
his  basket  over,  poured  a  great  many  of  the 
berries  into  his  own  basket,  and  the  rest 
were  spilled  over  on  the  ground.  Then, 
angry  at  Rollo's  screams  and  cries,  he  tram 
pled  on  all  the  berries  that  were  on  the 
ground,  and  was  beginning  to  run  away. 
Rollo  caught  hold  of  the  skirt  of  his  coat, 
screaming  all  the  time  for  his  father.  Jim 
turned  round,  and  struck  Rollo  with  his 
fist,  knocked  him  down,  and  then  he  and 
the  other  boys  set  off,  as  fast  as  they  could 


TROUBLE    ON    THE   MOUNTAIN. 


173 


run,  through  the  bushes ;  and  they  disap 
peared,  just  as  Hollo's  father  and  Jonas  came 
hastening  to  his  aid. 


They  raised  Rollo  up,  and  his  father  took 
him  in  his  arms  to  carry  him  away,  He 
saw  that  there  had  been  some  serious  diffi 
culty  with  the  bad  boys,  but  he  did  not  ask 
Rollo  anything  about  it  then ;  for  he  knew 
that  he  could  not  talk  intelligibly  till  he 


174    TROUBLE  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

had  done  crying.  Hollo  laid  his  head  down 
on  his  father's  shoulder,  as  he  walked  along, 
and  sobbed  bitterly. 


A  TEST   OF  PENITENCE. 

His  father  carried  him  back  to  where  his 
mother  and  uncle  were,  who  were  coming 
towards  him  looking  anxiously. 

They  presently  got  pretty  near  them, 
Rollo  still  continuing  to  cry.  His  father 
then  said  to  him, 

"  Rollo,  be  still  a  moment.  I  want  to 
speak  to  you." 

When  he  first  took  Rollo  up,  he  did  not 
command  him  to  be  still,  for  he  knew  that 
it  would  do  no  good.  He  was  then  so  over 
whelmed  with  pain  and  terror,  that  he  could 
not  help  crying  ;  and  his  father  never  com 
manded  impossibilities.  By  this  time,  how 
ever,  the  pain,  and  the  immediate  terror, 
had  so  far  subsided,  that  his  father  knew  he 
could  now  control  himself,  and  Rollo  knew 
that  he  must  obey.  He  accordingly  stopped 
crying  aloud,  and  tried  to  listen  to  his 
father. 


TROUBLE  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN.    175 

"Rollo,"  said  his  father,  "I  pity  you  very 
much.  I  warned  you  against  this  bad  com 
pany,  and  now  I  perceive  you  have  got  into 
some  difficulty  with  them  ;  but  I  cannot 
hear  your  story  about  it  till  we  get  home. 
It  is  your  own  fault  that  has  brought  you 
into  trouble;  and  now  you  must  not  extend 
your  trouble  over  all  our  party,  and  spoil 
our  happiness  as  you  have  your  own.  I 
must  go  and  put  you  by  yourself,  until  you 
get  entirely  composed  and  pleasant,  and 
then  you  may  join  us  again." 

"But,  father,"  said  Rollo,  beginning  to 
cry  afresh  at  the  thought  of  the  boys'  treat 
ment  of  him,  "they  came  up  to  me,  and — - 
and  —  " 

"  Stop,  Hollo,"  said  his  father.  "  Be  still. 
You  cannot  tell  the  story  intelligibly  now, 
and  if  you  could,  I  should  not  be  willing  to 
listen  to  it.  You  must  not  say  any  thing 
about  it,  unless  you  are  questioned,  until 
we  get  home." 

By  this  time  they  came  up  pretty  near 
the  place  where  the  rest  of  the  party  were ; 
but  his  father  did  not  take  him  there.  He 
turned  aside,  and,  putting  Rollo  down,  he 


176    TROUBLE  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

led  him  along  to  a  smooth  log,  which  lay 
among  some  old  trees,  close  by,  and  told 
him  to  sit  there  until  he  was  entirely  com 
posed  and  pleasant  again,  and  then  to  come 
to  him,  or  go  to  picking  berries  again,  just 
as  he  pleased. 

Hollo  sat  on  the  log  for  some  time,  with 
his  empty  basket  by  his  side,  mourning  over 
his  sorrows.  Lucy  came  to  him,  and  endea 
vored  to  console  him.  She  begged  him  not 
to  cry ;  and  she  poured  out  half  of  her  own 
berries  into  his  basket,  and  told  him  that 
they  could  soon  fill  it  full  again,  if  he 
would  come  with  her  to  a  good  thick  place 
she  had  found.  Rollo  became  gradually 
quiet  and  composed,  and  walked  along  with 
Lucy. 

Lucy  had  indeed  found  a  place  where 
the  berries  were  very  thick  and  large,  and 
Rollo  determined  to  be  as  industrious  as 
possible.  They  worked  away  very  busily 
for  half  an  hour,  and  Rollo  gradually  recov 
ered  his  spirits. 

His  mother  watched  him  from  time  to 
time,  and  when  she  saw  that  he  was  good- 
humored  again,  she  said  to  his  father, 


TROUBLE  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN.    177 

"Rollo  seems  to  be  picking  his  berries 
very  pleasantly.  I  rather  think  he  is  sorry 
for  his  conduct." 

"Yes,  I  see  he  is  getting  good-humored 
again,  but  I  am  afraid  he  is  not  truly  peni 
tent.  It  is  easier  to  forget  a  sin,  than  to  be 
sorry  for  it.  It  is  very  easy,  however,  for 
us  to  ascertain." 

"  How  can  we  ascertain  ? "  asked  his 
mother. 

"  Why,  if  you  should  go  and  ask  him 
about  it,  if  he  is  really  penitent,  he  will  be 
troubled  most  to  think  of  his  disobedience 
in  going  into  the  bad  company ;  but  if  he  is 
not  penitent,  he  will  not  think  of  that,  but 
only  go  to  scolding  about  the  bad  boys." 

"That  is  true,"  said  she.  "I  have  a  great 
mind  to  go  and  try  him." 

Hollo's  father  thought  it  would  be  a  good 
plan,  and  she,  accordingly,  walked  along 
towards  Rollo  slowly,  gathering  berries  as 
she  went. 

Rollo  saw  her  coming,  and  said,  "  Here  is 
mother,  Lucy ;  let  us  go  and  give  her  our 
berries." 

So  saying,  he  carried  his  basket  up  to  her 
very  pleasantly,  and  said,  "  Here,  mother  ; 
12 


178        TROUBLE   ON   THE   MOUNTAIN. 

see,  here  are  all  these  berries  I  have  been 
picking  for  you." 

"  Ah,"  said  she,  "  did  you  pick  all  these 
for  me  ?  " 

"  E — h — no,"  said  he,  "  not  all ;  Lucy 
gave  me  some." 

"  Well,  Lucy,  I  am  very  much  obliged  to 
you,  and  I  am  glad  to  see  that  you,  Rollo, 
are  pleasant  again ;  I  am  sorry  you  went 
and  got  into  difficulty  with  those  boys." 

"  They  came  and  took  away  my  berries," 
said  he,  "and  struck  me  —  that  great,  ugly 
Jim." 

The  feelings  of  vexation  and  anger  against 
the  bad  boys  began  to  rise  again  in  Hollo's 
mind,  the  moment  he  began  to  talk  about 
them,  and  he  was  just  going  to  cry.  His 
mother  stopped  him,  saying, 

"  You  need  not  tell  me  about  him  any 
more.  I  see  how  it  is." 

"  How  what  is  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  How  it  is  about  your  being  sorry.  Your 
father  told  me  that  if  you  were  truly  peni 
tent  for  what  had  happened  about  those 
boys,  I  should  find  you,  when  I  came  to 
talk  with  you  about  it,  grieved  for  your  own 
fault,  and  if  you  were  not  penitent,  you 


TROUBLE   ON  THE   MOUNTAIN.        179 

would  only  be  angry  at  theirs.  I  see  which 
it  is." 

Rollo  was  silent  a  moment.  He  felt  the 
truth  and  justice  of  the  distinction;  but, 
like  all  boys  who  are  not  sorry  for  the 
wrong  they  have  done,  he  could  not  resist 
the  temptation  to  try  to  justify  himself  by 
throwing  the  blame  on  others.  So  he  be 
gan  to  tell  her  something  more  about  that 
"cross  old  Jim,"  but  she  interrupted  him, 
and  told  him  she  did  not  wish  to  hear  any 
thing  about  that  "  cross  old  Jim."  He  was 
not  her  boy,  she  said,  and  she  had  nothing 
to  do  with  him  or  his  faults. 

She  then  went  to  talking  about  other 
things,  and  helped  Rollo  begin  to  fill  his 
basket  again.  He  showed  her  where  the 
berries  were  thickest,  and  led  her  round 
behind  a  rock  to  show  her  a  beautiful  wild 
flower  that  he  had  found.  He  said  he  did 
not  bring  it  to  her,  for  his  father  had  told 
him  not  to  touch  any  flowers  or  berries  that 
they  did  not  know,  for  fear  they  might  be 
poisonous. 

After  a  little  while,  Rollo's  mother  left 
him  and  Lucy  together,  and  went  back  to 
where  his  father  and  uncle  were. 


180    TROUBLE  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

"Well,"  said  they,  "how  did  you  find 
Rollo?" 

"  Pleasant,  but  not  penitent"  said  she. 

Lucy  and  Rollo  went  on  gathering  berries 
some  time  after  Rollo's  mother  left  him,  in 
silence.  Rollo  felt  rather  unhappy,  but  he 
was  not  subdued.  His  heart  was  still  proud 
and  urihumbled;  and,  after  a  time,  he  said 
to  Lucy, 

"It  seems  to  me  very  strange  that  my 
mother  does  not  think  those  boys  were  to 
blame  any  for  doing  so." 

"She  does  think  they  were  to  blame, 
Rollo,  I  know." 

"No,  she  does  not.  She  will  not  hear 
me  say  any  thing  about  them." 

Lucy  did  not  answer,  because  she  knew 
it  would  do  no  good  to  dispute  with  Rollo, 
while  he  was  so  unreasonable.  Rollo  ought 
to  have  been  willing  to  have  seen  his  fault, 
and  to  have  felt  truly  sorry  for  it ;  but  he 
was  not,  and  so  Lucy  thought  it  was  better 
not  to  talk  with  him  about  it  at  all.  If  he 
had  been  truly  sorry,  and  had  gone  and 
told  his  father  so,  and  asked  his  forgive 
ness,  he  would  have  been  happy  again. 

But,  as  it  was,  he  was  not  happy.     The 


TROUBLE  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN.    181 

recollection  of  his  disobedience  and  sin, 
would  remain  in  his  mind ;  and,  though 
he  tried  to  talk,  and  laugh,  and  play,  as 
usual,  his  mind  was  not  much  at  ease.  In 
fact,  he  was  secretly  glad  when  the  time 
arrived  for  going  home. 

The  party  all  gathered  together  on  a 
smooth  piece  of  ground,  about  the  middle 
of  the  afternoon,  to  make  their  arrange 
ments  for  going  down  the  mountain.  They 
put  their  baskets,  filled  beautifully  with 
blueberries,  together  on  the  grass,  while 
they  sat  on  the  stones  and  logs  around,  to 
rest  a  little  before  walking  down. 

Then  Hollo's  father  arranged  the  order 
of  march.  Jonas  was  to  go  first,  with  two 
of  the  heaviest  baskets  of  berries.  Next 
came  Lucy,  with  her  little  baskets  two- 
thirds  full,  and  with  leaves  and  some  beau 
tiful  pieces  of  moss  she  had  found,  put  in 
upon  the  top.  Then  came  Hollo's  mother 
leaning  on  his  uncle's  arm.  His  uncle  had 
a  basket  of  berries  in  his  other  hand.  Fi 
nally,  Rollo  and  his  father  walked  together 
behind,  with  each  a  basket  in  his  hand. 

Thus  they  walked  along  down  the  steep 
path,  until  they  began  to  enter  the  bushes. 


182    TROUBLE  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

Hollo's  father  had  made  this  arrangement 
so  that  he  might  have  an  opportunity  to 
talk  with  him  about  the  difficulty  with  the 
boys,  for  he  thought,  on  the  whole,  it  would 
be  better  to  talk  with  him  now  than  to  wait 
till  they  got  home. 

After  they  had  walked  along  a  little  way, 
Hollo's  father  asked  him  whether  he  had  a 
good  time  blueberrying. 

"  Why,  yes,  sir,"  said  Rollo,  "pretty  good." 

"Have  you  seen  any  thing  more  of  those 
boys?" 

"  No,  sir." 

"  Your  mother  went  to  talk  with  you,  and 
said  you  did  not  seem  very  sorry  for  your 
fault." 

"  Why,  father,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  did  not  do 
any  thing  to  the  boys  at  all.  It  was  all 
their  fault  entirely." 

"I  don't  suppose  you  did  do  any  thing 
wrong  towards  them,  but  you  committed  a 
great  fault  in  respect  to  me." 

"What  fault?"  said  Hollo. 

"Disobedience." 

"Why,  father,  how?  You  did  not  tell 
me  to  stay  close  by  you.  " 

"And  is   a   boy  guilty  of  disobedience 


TROUBLE   OX   THE   MOUNTAIN.        183 

only  when  he  does  what  his  father  forbids 
in  words  ?  " 

"  I  suppose  so,"  said  Rollo. 

"  What  is  disobedience  ?  "  asked  his  father. 

"  Why,  it  is  doing  what  you  tell  me  not 
to  do ;  is  it  not?  " 

"  That  is  not  a  sufficient  definition  of  it ; 
for  suppose  you  were  out  there  in  the 
bushes,  and  I  was  to  beckon  you  to  come 
here,  and  you  should  not  come,  would  not 
that  be  disobedience  ?  " 

"  Why,  yes,  sir." 

"  And  yet  I  should  not  tell  you  to  come." 

"  No,  sir." 

"  And  so,  if  I  were  to  shake  my  head  at 
you  when  you  were  doing  any  thing  wrong, 
and  you  were  to  continue  doing  it,  that 
would  be  disobedience." 

Rollo  admitted  that  it  would. 

"  So  that  it  is  not  necessary  that  I  should 
tell  you  in  words  what  my  wishes  are  :  if 
I  express  them  in  any  way  so  that  you 
plainly  understand  it,  that  is  enough.  The 
most  important  orders  that  are  given  by 
men,  are  often  given  without  any  words." 

"  How,  father  ?  " 


184   TROUBLE  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

k'  Why,  at  sea,  sometimes,  where  there  is 
a  great  fleet  of  ships,  and  the  admiral,  who 
commands  them  all,  is  in  one  of  them.  Now, 
if  he  wants  all  the  fleet  to  sail  in  any  way ; 
or  if  he  wishes  to  have  some  one  vessel  come 
near  to  his,  or  go  back  home,  or  go  away  to 
any  other  part  of  the  world ;  or  if  he  wants 
any  particular  person  in  the  fleet  to  come 
on  board  his  vessel,  —  he  does  not  send  an 
order  in  tvords;  he  only  hoists  flags  of  a 
particular  kind  upon  the  masts  of  his  vessel, 
and  they  all  obey  them. 

"  Now,  suppose,"  continued  he,  "  one  of 
the  ships  did  not  sail  as  he  wished,  and  when 
he  called  the  captain  to  account  for  it,  he 
should  say  that  he  was  not  guilty  of  dis 
obedience,  because  he  did  not  tell  him  to 
sail  so." 

Hollo  laughed,  and  said  he  thought  that 
would  not  be  a  very  good  excuse. 

"  Well,  it  is  just  such  an  excuse  as  yours. 
I  did  not  positively  command  you  not  to 
go  near  the  boys,  or  not  to  have  any  con 
versation  with  them  at  all,  though  I  ex 
pressed  my  Avish  that  you  would  not,  so 
that  you  could  not  help  understanding  it." 


TROUBLE   ON   THE   MOUNTAIN.        185 

Rollo  could  not  deny  that  this  was  so. 

"  But  that  is  not  the  only  case  of  disobe 
dience.  For  you  did  one  thing  which  was 
contrary  to  my  express  command  in  words." 

Rollo  looked  concerned,  and  said  he  was 
sure  he  did  not  know  it. 

"  I  told  you  not  to  go  out  of  my  sight." 

"  Well,  but,  father,"  said  Rollo  eagerly, 
in  reply,  "  I  am  sure  I  did  not  mean  to.  I 
was  picking  berries  so  busy,  I  did  not  ob 
serve  where  I  was." 

"  I  know  you  were,  and  that  was  the  dis 
obedience  ;  for  when  I  command  you  to 
keep  in  sight  of  me,  that  means  that  you 
must  take  good  care  that  you  do  mind 
where  you  are.  Suppose  I  were  to  tell 
Jonas  that  he  might  go  and  take  a  walk, 
but  that  he  must  be  sure  to  come  back  in 
half  an  hour,  and  he  should  go,  and  pay  no 
attention  to  the  time,  and  so  not  come  back 
until  three  quarters  of  an  hour  ;  would  that 
be  obedience  ?  " 

"  No,  sir ;  but  it  would  not  be  so  bad  as 
it  would  be  if  he  should  stay  away  when 
he  knew  that  the  time  was  out." 

"  No,  it  would  not  be  so  wilful  an  act  of 
disobedience,  but  it  would  be  disobedience, 


186    TROUBLE  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

notwithstanding.  You  see,  Rollo,"  he  con 
tinued,  "when  I  tell  you  or  any  boy  to 
come  back  in  half  an  hour,  there  are  two 
things  implied  in  the  command  —  first,  that 
you  should  notice  the  time,  and,  secondly, 
that  you  should  come  back  when  the  time  is 
out.  Now,  you  may  disobey  the  command 
by  neglecting  either  of  these." 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  see  we  may,  but 
I  did  not  think  of  it  before." 

"No,  I  presume  you  did  not,"  said  his 
father ;  "  but  I  want  you  to  understand  it, 
and  remember  it  after  this  forever.  You 
have  disobeyed,  to-day,  in  two  ways,  in 
which  boys  are  very  apt  to  disobey,  when 
they  do  not  mean  to  do  it  wilfully.  I  will 
tell  you  what  the  principles  are,  again,  so 
that  you  can  remember  and  tell  me  when  I 
ask  you. 

"  1.  Boys  must  take  care  to  comply  with 
their  parents'  directions,  if  they  are  ex 
pressed  in  any  way  whatsoever ;  and, 

"  2.  When  directed  to  do  any  thing  in  a 
particular  time  or  way,  they  must  see  to  it 
themselves,  that  they  notice  and  keep  in 
mind  the  circumstances  which  they  are  re 
quired  to  attend  to." 


TROUBLE   ON   THE  MOUNTAIN.        187 

Rollo  said  he  would  try  to  remember  it, 
and  as  he  seemed  attentive  and  docile,  his 
father  did  not  talk  with  him  any  more  about 
his  fault  at  that  time.  Besides,  they  came 
now  to  some  very  rough  places  in  the  path, 
and  Hollo's  father  had  to  lift  Lucy  over 
them. 

Lucy  spilled  some  of  her  berries  in  one 
place,  and  Rollo  was  going  to  help  her  pick 
them  up,  but  Jonas  said  they  had  better 
leave  them  for  the  birds,  and  walk  on. 

"  So  we  will,  Lucy,"  said  Rollo,  "  and  I 
rather  think  that  Mosette  is  hungry  by  this 
time." 

"  Yes,"  said  Jonas,  "  and  what  are  you 
going  to  do  with  Mosette  ?  " 

"  O,  put  him  in  a  cage,  and  bring  him  up 
tame,"  said  Rollo.  "I  mean  to  teach  him 
to  eat  out  of  my  hand.  I  shall  treat  him 
very  kindly,  though  he  is  my  little  pris 
oner." 

"I  would  give  him  the  liberty  of  the 
yard,  if  I  were  you,"  said  some  one  behind, 
laughing. 

Rollo  looked  around.  It  was  his  uncle 
George,  walking  close  behind  him. 

"  What  is  the  liberty  of  the  yard  ?  "  said 
Rollo. 


188   TROUBLE  OX  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

"  Why,  when  men  intend  to  treat  a  pris 
oner  kindly,  they  leave  the  prison  door 
open,  and  let  him  walk  about  the  yard  ;  and 
this  is  called  letting  him  have  the  liberty  of 
the  yard ;  and  sometimes  they  let  them  go 
over  half  the  town." 

"  Do  you  think  I  had  better  do  so  with 
Mosette  ?  "  said  Hollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  his  uncle  George ;  "  leave 
his  cage  open,  and  let  him  go  where  he 
pleases." 

"  O,  he  would  fly  entirely  away,"  said 
Hollo. 

"  Perhaps  not,  if  you  should  feed  him 
well  and  treat  him  very  kindly.  He  might 
like  his  cage  better  than  any  nest." 

"  I  shall  treat  him  as  kindly  as  I  can," 
said  Rollo  ;  "  only  think,  Jonas,  that  Jim 
said,  if  he  had  found  him,  he  should  have 
set  him  up  upon  the  fence  for  a  mark  to  fire 
stones  at ! " 

"  Jim  said  so  ?"  said  Jonas,  "how  did  Jim 
know  any  thing  about  it  ?  " 

«  Why  —  e  —  h  —  why  —  I  told  him," 
said  Rollo. 

"  What  did  you  tell  him  for  ?  " 

"  O,  because,"  said  Rollo,  "  we  were  talk 
ing,  and  I  told  him." 


TROUBLE  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN.    189 

"  I  hope  you  did  not  tell  him  where  we 
hid  Mosette,  behind  the  rock." 

«  Why— yes,"  said  Rollo, "  I  believe  I  did." 

"Then  I  am  afraid  you  will  never  see 
poor  Mosette  again,"  said  Jonas. 

"Why,"  said  Rollo,  "you  don't  think 
that  he  would  go  and  get  him." 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Jonas,  "  what  he 
would  do  ;  but  I  should  not  have  wanted  to 
tell  such  a  boy  any  thing  about  him." 

Rollo  began  to  be  alarmed.  He  went  back 
to  his  father,  and  asked  him  to  let  him  and 
Jonas  go  on  before  the  rest,  to  see  if  their 
bird  was  safe.  His  father  told  him  he  might 
go.  "  But,"  said  he,  "  I  am  afraid  you  have 
lost  your  bird ;  when  a  boy  allows  himself  to 
get  into  bad  company,  he  does  not  know  how 
many  troubles  he  plunges  himself  into." 

Rollo  and  Jonas  ran  on,  and  soon  disap 
peared  among  the  trees.  Rollo  found  it 
hard  to  keep  up,  as  the  road  was  not  very 
smooth,  though  they  had  got  down  the  steep 
est  part  of  the  mountain.  Jonas  kept  hold 
of  Rollo's  hand,  and  went  on  running  and 
walking  alternately,  until  they  got  down  to 
the  end  of  the  trees  and  bushes,  and  then 


190    TROUBLE  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

they  came  out  in  sight  of  the  place  where 
the  horses  were  tied. 

It  was  fortunate  for  poor  Mosette,  and 
for  Rollo  too,  that  they  did  thus  run  on  be 
fore,  for  it  happened  that  Jim,  and  the  boys 
with  him,  had  come  down  the  mountain  by 
another  road,  and  were  just  going  up  to  the 
place  as  Jonas  and  Rollo  came  out  of  the 
woods. 

"  There  they  are,"  said  Jonas.  "  You  stay 
here ;  I  must  run  on."  And  he  let  go  of 
Hollo's  hand,  sprang  forward,  and  ran  with 
all  his  might.  Rollo  tried  to  follow,  but 
soon  stopped  and  looked  on. 

Jim  and  his  boys  did  not  see  Jonas  com 
ing,  and  they  went  to  work  looking  around 
the  bushes  and  stones  after  Mosette.  In  a 
few  minutes,  one  smaller  boy  came  out  from 
the  bushes,  close  by  the  place  where  Rollo 
rscollected  the  nest  was  hid,  with  something 
in  his  hand,  and  Rollo  could  distinctly  hear 
him  calling  out, 

"Here  he  is,  Jim  —  I  have  got  him,  Jim." 

Just  that  moment,  Jonas  came  running 
up  among  the  boys,  calling  out, 

"  Let  that  bird  alone  !  —  Let  that  bird 
alone  !  "  The  boys,  terrified  at  this  unex- 


TROUBLE   ON   THE   MOUNTAIN.        191 

pected  onset,  started  and  ran  in  every  di 
rection.  The  boy  who  had  the  nest,  dropped 
it  upon  the  ground,  and  dodged  back  into 
the  bushes.  Jonas  took  it  up  carefully,  put 
little  Mosette,  who  had  fallen  out,  back  in 
the  nest,  and  walked  out  into  the  road  to 
meet  Rollo,  who  was  coming  down  as  fast  as 
he  could  come,  on  the  other  side. 

They  saw  Jim  and  his  comrades  no  more, 
and  Rollo  said  he  believed  he  should  never 
again  want  to  have  any  thing  to  do  with  bad 
boys. 


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